# commentaries

text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>My strength is dried up like a shard of pottery; my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth. You have brought me into the dust of death-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As noted on :1, the initial context of the Psalm was David's collapse of health after the sin with Bathsheba. The dehydration would be associated with various serious diseases. And it pointed forward to the Lord's thirst on the cross. David felt dead, already back to dust, when he wasn't. Perhaps the Lord likewise reasoned (for a moment, in the crisis of the cross) that He might somehow experience effective death without dying. Although before that He clearly predicted His death for three days. Perhaps the extreme language is because David is continually alluding to Job's feelings in suffering.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For dogs have surrounded me, a company of evildoers have enclosed me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The assembly (AV) of the wicked who do this alludes to the Sanhedrin. They are unclean animals (as in :11)- when they prided themselves upon their purity.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>They have pierced my hands and feet-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As discussed on :1, not all the experiences listed here appear to have been true of David, nor of any Biblical character. We conclude that some of the language of piercing and crucifixion was therefore initially intended symbolically. But it all came together in a literal sense for the Lord Jesus. There is also the possibility that there were historical sufferings of David which are simply not recorded, and yet are alluded to in the Psalms.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I can count all of my bones, they look and stare at me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This is from the perspective of the crucified Lord Jesus looking downwards at His own body. And yet on the cross He saw all His bones, which represented the future members of His body (<a href='B:560 5:30'>Eph 5:30</a>). David was presumably seriously, perhaps terminally ill as a result of the sin with Bathsheba; and the Psalms written at that time are descriptive of the Lord's time of dying. For then He was supremely identified with sinful people.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>They divide my garments among them, they cast lots for my clothing-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Again we wonder as to how this could be done without people instantly perceiving a fulfilment of the Psalm. As noted on :8, it seems that it was a case of hate blinding the eyes and sense of those caught up in it. They knew the words, and quoted them out of context, as they thought. They surely later realized what they had done. And were driven either to even deeper psychological blindness, or repentance.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>But don’t be far off, Yahweh. You are my help: hurry to help me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David prayed at the time of the Bathsheba incident for God not be far from him nor forsake him (<a href='B:230 38:21'>Psa 38:21</a>). But in <a href='B:230 22:1'>Psa 22:1</a>; <a href='B:230 22:19'>Psa 22:19</a> he feels he has been forsaken and that God is "far off". But this Psalm is absolutely the feelings of the Lord Jesus on the cross- because He was so intensely identified with sinners. I noted on :3 that the historical context of this Psalm was the sin with Bathsheba. David repeatedly asks God to "hurry to help me" (<a href='B:230 22:19'>Psa 22:19</a>; <a href='B:230 38:22'>Psa 38:22</a>; <a href='B:230 40:13'>Psa 40:13</a>; <a href='B:230 70:1'>Psa 70:1</a>; <a href='B:230 70:5'>Psa 70:5</a>; <a href='B:230 141:1'>Psa 141:1</a>). But David had hurried (s:w:) to be obedient to God, always wanting to 'say yes straight away' (<a href='B:230 119:60'>Psa 119:60</a>). Our response to God's voice is therefore related to His response to our voice; if His words abide in us, then we experience positive experience in answered prayer (<a href='B:500 15:7'>Joh 15:7</a>).</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Deliver my soul from the sword, my precious life from the power of the dog!<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Life is perceived rightly as our most precious possession. The Lord's desire for deliverance, like David's, meant that He wanted immediate deliverance; He had to come to realize that the prayer would be answered, but not immediately. Such deliverance from the sword became appropriate to the salvation from Assyria (s:w. <a href='B:400 5:6'>Mic 5:6</a>). But it is a quotation from the situation of Moses, who was saved from the sword of Pharaoh (s:w. <a href='B:20 18:4'>Exo 18:4</a>). Moses was one of the 'fathers' whose prayers for deliverance had been heard (:4,5). The pinnacle of the Lord's humility just before He died was in realizing that others less spiritual than Himself had been delivered. What seemed so unfair and unjust, God coming through for him or her but not for me::. caused the Lord to reach the required acme of humility with which He died (Php_2:6-12). And yet for many, those issues of injustice lead them to lose faith in God, because they refuse to humble themselves.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Save me from the lion’s mouth! Yes, from the horns of the wild oxen, You have answered me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>At this point the tone of the psalm changes. Whilst at the lion's mouth, the Lord Jesus felt answered. It seems He perceived that the answer was going to come in resurrection, rather than in immediate deliverance after the pattern of Isaac (see on :1). This of course was what the Lord had earlier believed, reflected in His clear teaching that He was to die and be dead for three days.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I will declare Your name to my brothers, in the midst of the congregation I will praise You-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'> The Name was declared in the Lord’s death, as He had foretold (<a href='B:500 17:26'>Joh 17:26</a>). Forgiveness of sins is through baptism into the Name (<a href='B:510 2:38'>Act 2:38</a>), as even in OT times forgiveness was for the sake of the Name (<a href='B:230 79:9'>Psa 79:9</a>). And yet through the cross and blood of Christ is forgiveness made possible. His blood and death therefore was the supreme declaration of God’s Name; through His cross the grace and forgiveness, love, salvation and judgment implicit in the Name was all enabled and revealed in practice. <a href='B:230 22:22'>Psa 22:22</a> prophesied that “I will declare thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the congregation [ekklesia, LXX]", and this is quoted about the Lord Jesus and His church in <a href='B:650 2:12'>Heb 2:12</a>. "In the midst of::." is interpreted in <a href='B:650 2:12'>Heb 2:12</a> as a reason for understanding that the Lord had our human nature. He died with the vision of being one with us, singing along with us; not of being above us. It was to us His brethren that the Name was declared; in the eyes of an unbelieving world, this was just another crucified man, a failure, a wannabe who never made it. But to us, it is the declaration of the Name. It was and is done in the midst of the ecclesia, as if the whole church from that day to this beholds it all at first hand. And our response is to in turn “Declare his righteousness" (<a href='B:230 22:31'>Psa 22:31</a>), in response to seeing the Name declared, we declare to Him</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>in lives of love for the brethren. For the Name was declared, that the love that was between the Father and Son might be in us.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The Lord died with the vision of us His "brothers", the congregation in whose midst He would walk and fellowship, as He does today. We, and His fellowship with us, was the vision He died with and was His comfort all through His time of dying. So the Lord's prayer thoughts to the Father on the cross included His awareness that the ekklesia, the church or "congregation", were His brothers. For He realized that it was through His sacrifice that a new family was being created. The declaration or preaching of the Father's Name to us was supremely through the Lord's death on the cross. The cross was the supreme declaration of the Name (<a href='B:500 17:26'>Joh 17:26</a>); the first letters of the Hebrew title over the cross spelt 'YHWH'. And that declaration of the Name in the naked, bleeding, betrayed and crucified Christ was to us. And the Lord looked forward, perhaps in literal terms, to singing praise to the Father in the midst of His brothers. This all hardly sounds as if the Lord Jesus was "God the Son". He positioned Himself in the midst of His brethren, singing God's praise- even after His exaltation.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>You who fear Yahweh, praise Him! All you descendants of Jacob, glorify Him! Stand in awe of Him, all you descendants of Israel!<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The seed of Jacob, the true Israel, were understood by the Lord as "my brothers", the ekklesia (:22), the "humble" (:26), the new people who were to be born through His sacrifice (:31). This was to be the new Israel of God. The Lord died with us in view.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For He has not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, neither has He hidden His face from him; but when he cried to Him, He heard-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>In deep sickness or depression it can simply be that we find formal, verbalized prayer impossible. <a href='B:230 77:4'>Psa 77:4</a> speaks of this: "I am so troubled that I cannot speak" (formally, to God). It's in those moments that comfort can be taken from the fact that it is our spirit which is mediated as it were to God. Tribulation is read as prayer- hence even the Lord's suffering on the cross, "the affliction of the afflicted", was read by the Father as the Lord Jesus 'crying unto' the Father (<a href='B:230 22:24'>Psa 22:24</a>). This is sure comfort to those so beset by illness and physical pain that they lack the clarity of mind to formally pray- their very affliction is read by the Father as their prayer.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Of You comes my praise in the great assembly; I shall pay my vows before those who fear Him-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Verse 22 prophesied that “I will declare thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the congregation [ekklesia, LXX]", and this is quoted about the Lord Jesus and His church in <a href='B:650 2:12'>Heb 2:12</a>. "In the midst of::." is interpreted in <a href='B:650 2:12'>Heb 2:12</a> as a reason for understanding that the Lord had our human nature. He died with the vision of being one with us, singing along with us; not of being above us. And here we have the same idea; the Lord looked ahead to the day when along with other God fearers, He would pay his vows before God. His God was their God, as He specifically stated after His resurrection (<a href='B:500 20:17'>Joh 20:17</a>).</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As discussed on :1, this was originally a Psalm written at the time of the sin with Bathsheba and Uriah. David increasingly recognized his sinfulness and his reliance upon the grace of God. One would have thought that after the Bathsheba incident, David would have kept his mouth shut so far as telling other people how to live was concerned. But instead, we find an increasing emphasis in the Psalms (chronologically) upon David's desire to teach others of God's ways- particularly the surrounding Gentile peoples, before whom David had been disgraced over Bathsheba, not to mention from his two faced allegiance to Achish (<a href='B:90 27:8-12'>1Sa 27:8-12</a>). There is real stress upon this evangelistic fervour of David (<a href='B:230 4:3'>Psa 4:3</a>; <a href='B:230 18:49'>Psa 18:49</a>; <a href='B:230 22:25'>Psa 22:25</a>; <a href='B:230 22:31'>Psa 22:31</a>; <a href='B:230 35:18'>Psa 35:18</a>; <a href='B:230 40:9-10'>Psa 40:9-10</a>; <a href='B:230 57:9'>Psa 57:9</a>; <a href='B:230 62:8'>Psa 62:8</a>; <a href='B:230 66:5'>Psa 66:5</a>; <a href='B:230 66:16'>Psa 66:16</a>; <a href='B:230 95:1'>Psa 95:1</a>; <a href='B:230 95:8'>Psa 95:8</a>; <a href='B:230 96:5-8'>Psa 96:5-8</a>; <a href='B:230 96:10'>Psa 96:10</a>; <a href='B:230 100:1-4'>Psa 100:1-4</a>; <a href='B:230 105:1-2'>Psa 105:1-2</a>; <a href='B:230 119:27'>Psa 119:27</a>; <a href='B:230 145:5-6'>Psa 145:5-6</a>; <a href='B:230 145:12'>Psa 145:12</a>). Indeed, <a href='B:230 71:18'>Psa 71:18</a> records the "old and greyheaded" David pleading with God not to die until he had taught "thy strength unto this generation". As with Paul years later, the only reason he wanted to stay alive was in order to witness the Gospel of grace to others. David&nbsp;therefore coped with his deep inner traumas by looking out of himself to those around him, eagerly desiring to share with them the pureness of God's grace. He didn't do this as some kind of self-help psychiatry; it came naturally from a realization of his own sinfulness and God's mercy, and the wonderful willingness&nbsp;of God to extend this to men. </p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The humble shall eat and be satisfied, they who seek after Him shall praise Yahweh. May your hearts live forever-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Psalms 22, 69 describe the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross foreseeing "the great congregation" gratefully and humbly eating in memory of Him (cp. the breaking of bread), serving Him, inheriting Zion and declaring His righteousness and His victory on the cross to others down the generations. Let us remember this as we break bread and witness to Him (<a href='B:230 22:30-31'>Psa 22:30-31</a>).</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to Yahweh, all the families of nations shall worship before You-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As a result of the Lord being lifted up on the stake, “all the ends of the world shall</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'> turn unto [s:w. ‘convert to’] the Lord” (<a href='B:230 22:27'>Psa 22:27</a>). <a href='B:500 12:38-41'>Joh 12:38-41</a> draws a parallel between being converted, and understanding the prophecies of the glory of the crucified Christ. To know Him in His time of dying, to see the arm of Yahweh revealed in Him there and to respond, is to be converted:&nbsp;This is why the cross is at the center of all truly Christian witness:&nbsp; The Lord saw a new community developing from His dead and resurrected body, comprised of people from all nations, and thereby fulfilling the implications of the promises to Abraham.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>In <a href='B:490 24:45-47'>Luk 24:45-47</a> we read how Christ explained to the disciples that their preaching of the Gospel "among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem" was foretold in the Psalms and prophets. So the Bible student asks: Where&nbsp; in the Psalms and prophets? The Lord spoke as if the prophecies about this were copious. There do not seem to be any specific prophecies which speak of the twelve spreading the Gospel from Jerusalem in the first century. Instead we read of the Gospel being spread from Jerusalem in the Kingdom, and often the phrase "all nations" occurs in a Kingdom context, describing how "all nations" will come to worship Christ at Jerusalem (<a href='B:230 22:27'>Psa 22:27</a>; <a href='B:230 67:2'>Psa 67:2</a>; <a href='B:230 72:11'>Psa 72:11</a>; <a href='B:230 72:17'>Psa 72:17</a>; <a href='B:230 82:8'>Psa 82:8</a>; <a href='B:230 86:9'>Psa 86:9</a>; <a href='B:230 117:1'>Psa 117:1</a>; <a href='B:290 2:2'>Isa 2:2</a>; <a href='B:290 66:18'>Isa 66:18</a>; <a href='B:290 66:20'>Isa 66:20</a>; <a href='B:300 3:17'>Jer 3:17</a>; <a href='B:340 7:14'>Dan 7:14</a>; <a href='B:440 2:7'>Hag 2:7</a>; <a href='B:450 8:23'>Zec 8:23</a>). This selection of "Psalms and prophets" is impressive. Yet the Lord Jesus clearly interpreted these future Kingdom passages as having relevance to the world-wide spreading of the Gospel. "All nations" also occurs in many passages exhorting us to praise Yahweh among all the nations of this world. The reason for this is that God's glory is so great it should be declared as far as possible by us. <a href='B:130 16:24-25'>1Ch 16:24-25</a> is typical of many such verses: "Declare his glory among the heathen; his marvellous works among all nations. For&nbsp; great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised:::for all the gods of the people are idols". World-wide preaching is therefore an aspect of our praise of Yahweh, and as such it is a spiritual work which is timeless.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For the kingdom is Yahweh’s, He is the ruler over the nations-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The "for" connects this with surrounding verses, where the Lord has foreseen the new community of worshippers as emerging from the dust of death through a resurrection of the body similar to that which was to be His experience, in answer to His prayer in this Psalm (:29). And this was to be at the time when Yahweh's Kingdom was established over the nations; that new community which was to be created (:31) would comprise peoples from all nations (:27):&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>A number of Psalms appear to have some verses relevant to the exile, and others relevant to earlier historical situations. It would seem that an inspired writer inserted the verses which spoke specifically to the exilic situation. Psalms 22 thus appears to have had vv. 28-32 added or rewritten with reference to the exiles; other examples in Psalms 9, 10; Psalms 59; Psalms 66; Psalms 68; <a href='B:230 69:34'>Psa 69:34</a>; Psalms 85; Psalms 107; Psalms 108, 118.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>All the rich ones of the earth shall eat and worship, all those who go down to the dust shall bow before Him, even he who can’t keep his own soul alive-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>In :26, the community envisaged by the Lord who would "eat ad worship" were "the humble". He looked to the day when the poor would become the eternally rich, and the hungry would eat. This situation was envisaged as happening when those humble ones who had returned to dust would again "bow before Him". As the Lord Jesus perceived that the answer to His prayer was to be through resurrection, so He further perceived that this would enable the resurrection of those in Him. They are characterized as those who recognize they cannot keep their own soul alive. They denied that they had any inherent immortality (no immortal soul), and their search for a resurrection of the body by grace was to be met in the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Posterity shall serve Him, future generations shall be told about the Lord-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>AV "a seed". The Lord perceived that through His death and resurrection (in answer to His prayer for deliverance from death in this Psalm), the "seed" of promise would be developed. They were to be comprised of people from "all nations" (:27,29), and as noted on :31, the Lord perceived that the new community of saved ones would be characterized by telling others about Him, His death and resurrection.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>They shall come and shall declare His righteousness to a people that shall be born, for He has finished it- The seed of Jacob, the true Israel, were understood by the Lord as "my brothers", the ekklesia (:22), the "humble" (:26), the new people who were to be born through His sacrifice (:31). This was to be the new Israel of God who were 'to come'; their lead characteristic was that they would "declare His righteousness" to others. Witness is to be at the core of the redeemed community. The Lord died with us in view.</p><h2></h2>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>A Psalm of David. Yahweh is my shepherd: I shall be in need of nothing-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>There is a repeated Biblical theme that the believer's relationship with the Father&nbsp; is essentially mutual. David was a shepherd, but Yahweh was his shepherd (<a href='B:230 23:1'>Psa 23:1</a>), and he was to shepherd Israel (<a href='B:100 5:2'>2Sa 5:2</a> Heb:). It seems this Psalm was written when David was on the run from Absalom, having fled Jerusalem for his life, and now making his way along the banks of the river Kidron into the wilderness (<a href='B:100 15:23'>2Sa 15:23</a>), to be surprised by the feasts prepared for him in the desert (:5) by Ziba (<a href='B:100 16:2'>2Sa 16:2</a>) and Barzillai (<a href='B:100 17:27-29'>2Sa 17:27-29</a>). With no clear plan or course of action apart from to get away from Jerusalem, wandering in the desert::. David felt all the same that God was his shepherd and was leading him. As having nothing, he had all things. </p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>He makes me lie down in green meadows, He leads me beside still waters-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This is the language of sheep lying down and being led. As noted on :1, David had no clear plan when he suddenly had to flee Jerusalem. But he has a strong sense of being led. The still waters and green meadows may refer to how the Kidron brook began, but <a href='B:100 15:23'>2Sa 15:23</a> notes that David's path soon went from there into the desert. So maybe he is perceiving the wilderness as "green meadows" because God is leading him. Perhaps he had in view how God lead (s:w:) Israel through the desert, but with the waters of the stream from the rock going with them (<a href='B:20 15:13'>Exo 15:13</a>). The restoration application is to God's promise to "lead" (s:w:) the exiles on the desert journey back to Zion (<a href='B:290 40:11'>Isa 40:11</a>; <a href='B:290 49:10'>Isa 49:10</a>).</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>He restores my soul-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As God doesn’t faint or weary, so somehow those who identify their lives with His will also keep on keeping on- even now (<a href='B:290 40:31'>Isa 40:31</a> cp. 29). David felt that his youth was renewed like the eagle's in his repeated experience of God's grace (<a href='B:230 103:5'>Psa 103:5</a>), that his soul was restored (<a href='B:230 23:3'>Psa 23:3</a>), and that a right spirit could be renewed by God within him (<a href='B:230 51:10'>Psa 51:10</a>). This is the equivalent of the "newness of life" which is promised to us through acceptance of God's Spirit.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The great restoration prophecies of <a href='B:300 23:1-8'>Jer 23:1-8</a> and <a href='B:330 34:1-31'>Eze 34:1-31</a> speak of the flock of Israel going astray due to bad shepherds, being saved by the good shepherd, being delivered / gathered, and then returning to the land. The Hebrew word shub means both 'to return' in the sense of returning to the land, and 'turning' in the sense of repentance. But these restoration prophecies are packed with allusion to the great shepherd Psalms 23. Here, David says that the good shepherd 'causes me to repent' (<a href='B:230 23:3'>Psa 23:3</a> Heb:). This is matched in Ezekiel 36 by the idea of God giving Israel a new heart. And the Lord's amazing parable of the good shepherd (<a href='B:490 15:1-7'>Luk 15:1-7</a>) brings together Psalms 23 and also these restoration passages, in speaking of how He goes out and finds the lost sheep and brings it back home (Kenneth Bailey brings together all the many points of similarity between Psalms 23, <a href='B:300 23:1-8'>Jer 23:1-8</a>, <a href='B:330 34:1-31'>Eze 34:1-31</a> and the parable of the lost sheep (<a href='B:490 15:1-7'>Luk 15:1-7</a>) in his book Jacob And The Prodigal (Downers Grove: IVP, 2003) p. 70). The sheep is found, and accepts being found- there is no actual mention of repentance. Thus the 'return' of Judah to their land was intended as a work of God- He would make them return, He would give them repentance [note how <a href='B:510 11:18'>Act 11:18</a> speaks of God granting men repentance]. This is all such wonderful grace. The even more incredible thing, though, is that Judah refused to accept this grace; they didn't 'return' to the land because they saw no need to 'return' to God. They willingly forgot that they were only in Babylon because of their sins; to 'return' to the land was a 'return' to God, which He had enabled. But they were like the lost sheep refusing to sit on the shepherd's shoulders, preferring to sit in a hole and die::. and this is the warning to us. For truly, absolutely all things have been prepared for us to enter the Kingdom. It's only those who don't want to be there who won't be.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>He guides me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Here is yet another evidence that there can be a higher hand in the achievement of human spirituality. This guidance is part of God's sovereign ability to act "for His Name's sake"; if a man wants to be righteous, he will be confirmed in that path.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The immediate context was David fleeing Jerusalem at the time of Absalom's rebellion. He passed through a valley from the top of which Shimei, one of Absalom's supporters, threw rocks at him and cursed him (<a href='B:100 16:13'>2Sa 16:13</a>). There was naturally the fear of an ambush, for David's location was thereby clearly known to his enemies.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I will fear no evil, for You are with me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This was the fear of ambush just described. David's sense that 'God is with me' is that of 'Emmanuel', God with us, the great comfort to the exiles in Isaiah's restoration prophecies. He felt the essence of the result of the yet future work of the Lord Jesus.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Your rod and staff, they comfort me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This returns to the idea of David being God's sheep in :1. He believed he was suffering God's rod of correction, the consequences of his sin with Bathsheba; and yet at the same time, God's staff of protection against his enemies. "Comfort" is the word used for repentance or change of mind. Although he had repented for the sin with Bathsheba, his experience of the ongoing consequences led him to further repentance. And likewise in our experience, repentance tends to be a process, moving to ever deeper levels and further dimensions over time.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I noted on :4 that David's flight from Jerusalem was not in secret; Shimei and other "enemies" were aware of his path. The reference is to the feasts prepared for him in the desert by Ziba (<a href='B:100 16:2'>2Sa 16:2</a>) and Barzillai (<a href='B:100 17:27-29'>2Sa 17:27-29</a>). But the phrase "prepare a table" is that used of the preparation of the table of shewbread (<a href='B:20 40:4'>Exo 40:4</a>), and it is used in a religious sense in <a href='B:290 65:11'>Isa 65:11</a>; <a href='B:330 23:41'>Eze 23:41</a>. Perhaps David held some kind of religious ceremony whilst on the run, the equivalent to our breaking of bread meeting. And his experience of the Lord's table strengthened him with great encouragement, as we also can experience.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>You anoint my head with oil-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David recalls how Samuel had anointed him as a teenager. He was the anointed king of Israel. And he had learnt from Saul's demise that this could only be undone by God and not by man.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>My cup runs over-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>With everything against him, fleeing from his own son Absalom who had garnered mass support, with no clear plan as to where to go or how now to act, David felt he had blessing above blessing- because he had experienced God's grace.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Surely goodness and grace shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in Yahweh’s house forever-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'> see on <a href='B:10 28:20-21'>Gen 28:20-21</a>. As explained on :5, despite being at the nadir of his life at the time of Absalom's rebellion, David felt he was so blessed with God's grace and kindness. The fact God had saved him from execution after the Bathsheba incident::. was felt by David to be such an experience of saving grace, that nothing else mattered. Although now heading away from the sanctuary in Zion, he was certain that finally he would dwell in Yahweh's sanctuary eternally. Perhaps he is displaying faith that he would ultimately return to Zion; but more likely he has in view his eternal future in the Kingdom yet to come.</p><h2></h2>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>A Psalm of David-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This Psalm may have been used when David brought up the ark of God from the house of Obed-Edom to the sanctuary on Zion (<a href='B:100 6:12'>2Sa 6:12</a>). Perhaps the Levites who carried it sung this, or it was sung by a choir of Levites at this time.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The earth is Yahweh’s, with all its fullness; the world, and they who dwell in it-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'> The fact that "the earth is the Lord's" is used to highlight the wonder of the fact that therefore how much moreso do His people belong to Him, and are cared for by Him with such sensitivity (<a href='B:20 19:5'>Exo 19:5</a>; <a href='B:50 10:14'>Deu 10:14</a>; <a href='B:230 50:12'>Psa 50:12</a>; <a href='B:230 89:11'>Psa 89:11</a>). Just as the eretz / earth / land promised to Abraham is Yahweh's, so is in fact the entire planet, and His purpose was perceived by David as incorporating the entire planet and not just Israel. </p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For He has founded it on the seas, and established it on the floods-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The eretz in view in :1 was the territory promised to Abraham, greater Israel. It is presented as founded upon the seas and rivers ("floods") of Gentile nations; for as noted on :1, the eretz is paralleled with the entire world. David perceived God's intention was that the Gentiles should also come to Israel's God:&nbsp; </p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Who may ascend to Yahweh’s hill? Who may stand in His holy place?<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This rhetorical question is given in the context of having implied that people well beyond Israel had a place in God's Kingdom. But that Kingdom was not just for any Israelite; it was for anyone who kept His ways as later defined in the Psalm. And it seems David is saying that the sanctuary on mount Zion, God's holy hill, was open to all regardless of ethnicity. And even entrance into the holy place was no longer just for Levites, but for whoever was spiritually qualified. David himself was not a Levite but at times acted as one.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>He who has clean hands and a pure heart; who has not lifted up his soul to falsehood, and has not sworn deceitfully-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Throughout David’s Psalms in Psalms 1-72, he repeatedly asks for torture upon the sinners and blessing upon himself as the righteous. He speaks of how sinners should be “contemned” in the eyes of the righteous (<a href='B:230 15:4'>Psa 15:4</a>), the gatherings of sinners should be “hated” and sinners should not be fellowshipped (<a href='B:230 26:4-6'>Psa 26:4-6</a>; <a href='B:230 31:6'>Psa 31:6</a>) and how God’s uprightness is shown to the upright and His judgment to the judgmental (<a href='B:230 18:25-26'>Psa 18:25-26</a>; <a href='B:230 33:22'>Psa 33:22</a>). He invites God’s judgment upon himself and others according to their and his works (<a href='B:230 28:4'>Psa 28:4</a>):&nbsp; Frequently he alludes to Saul as “the violent man”- even though David committed his share of violence- and asks judgment upon him (<a href='B:230 18:48'>Psa 18:48</a>). Only those with clean hands and pure heart like himself could have fellowship with God (<a href='B:230 24:3-4'>Psa 24:3-4</a>). Psalms 37 doesn’t indicate any desire to convert the sinners but rather an expectation of their judgment and destruction. God and David laugh at the wicked because their day is coming (<a href='B:230 37:13'>Psa 37:13</a>). There’s no spirit of grace here at all- perhaps that’s why <a href='B:450 12:10'>Zec 12:10</a> specifically says that the spirit of grace will have to be poured out upon the house of David in the last days. This attitude changed after the sin with Bathsheba, but still something of the old self righteousness and judgmental attitudes are to be found in David in Psalms written after that.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>In describing his feelings after the Bathsheba experience, David comments that he was "as a man that hears not [the taunts of others against him], and in whose mouth are no rebukes" (<a href='B:230 38:14'>Psa 38:14</a>). The pre-Bathsheba Psalms present David as a man who was so easily hurt by the taunts of others, and whose mouth was indeed full of rebuke of others. Psalms 24, 25, 26 are full of David explaining that fellowship with God was dependent upon a man's "integrity", walking in truth, hating sinners, personal innocence, "uprightness", clean hands and pure heart. And throughout these Psalms, David holds up himself as the great example.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>He shall receive a blessing from Yahweh, namely righteousness from the God of his salvation-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This passage implies that our purity is not so much from forsaking sin, but rather from the imputation of God's righteousness to us. The letter to the Romans makes it clear that such imputation depends upon faith, not works (e:g. rectifying marriage problems). It is God's righteousness which is credited to us, not our own (<a href='B:540 5:21'>2Co 5:21</a>). And as noted on :3, David is open to the idea that all people, regardless of ethnicity, could partake of this imputed righteousness by grace through faith.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This is the generation of those who seek Him, who seek Your face-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>We are frequently reminded in the prophets that the spiritual way of life is one which is seeking God. We are to seek His face (<a href='B:230 24:6'>Psa 24:6</a>; <a href='B:230 27:8'>Psa 27:8</a>)- which it is impossible to behold (<a href='B:20 33:20'>Exo 33:20</a>). Actually finding God in the ultimate sense is therefore unattainable in this life; but our whole mortal life must be lived in this spirit of seeking ultimate perfection. Seeking God is often defined in the prophets as forsaking our sins and desiring to be righteous (<a href='B:370 5:5'>Amo 5:5</a>; <a href='B:370 5:8'>Amo 5:8</a>; <a href='B:370 5:14-15'>Amo 5:14-15</a>). None of us are completely successful in our seeking of God, and therefore it follows that none of is completely forsakes all our sinfulness.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Even that of the God of Jacob. Selah-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Every reference to "the God of Jacob / Israel" is effectively saying: 'I'm the God that stuck with mixed up, struggling Jacob. And I'll stick with you too, through spiritual thick and thin, and bring you through in the end'. This is the love of God for Jacob. So close is the association between God and Jacob that there are times when the name 'Jacob' becomes a synonym for 'the God of Jacob'. <a href='B:230 24:6'>Psa 24:6</a> is an example: "The generation of them that seek him, that seek thy face, O Jacob" (cp. other examples in <a href='B:290 44:5'>Isa 44:5</a>; <a href='B:300 10:16'>Jer 10:16</a>; <a href='B:300 51:19'>Jer 51:19</a>). The name of Israel therefore was paralleled with the name of God- Joshua feared that the name of Israel would be cut off, “and what wilt thou do unto thy great name?” (<a href='B:60 2:9'>Jos 2:9</a>). &nbsp;</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Lift up your heads, you gatekeepers! Be lifted up, you everlasting doors, and the King of glory will come in-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As noted on :1, the immediate reference was to the ark entering Zion. The mercy seat over which the glory of the shekinah was seen was understood as enthroned there. In this sense God was king there. And yet His entry into the sanctuary is parallel with the entry of righteous people into it, of all ethnicities (see on :1-5). The gatekeepers are being exhorted to lift up their heads and open the gates- both to God in the ark, and to all righteous people.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Who is the King of glory? Yahweh strong and mighty, Yahweh mighty in battle-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Who Isa:::?" matches the same rhetorical question in :3. The entry of God and that of His people is paralleled:&nbsp; </p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Lift up your heads, you gatekeepers; yes, lift them up, you everlasting doors, and the King of glory will come in-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This states that when the gatekeepers of Zion lift up their heads [to God in truth], then the King of glory will come in. And the Lord applies these words to His true people of the last days in <a href='B:490 21:28'>Luk 21:28</a> - they are to likewise lift up their heads [so that] their redemption will draw nigh, or be hastened. Israelite repentance is a condition for the Lord’s return.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Who is this King of glory? Yahweh of Armies is the King of glory! Selah- The entry of the ark into Zion looked forward to the final entry of God's glory into Zion in the person of the Lord Jesus in the last day. Christ's approach to Jerusalem is described in Psa. 24:10: "Who is this King of glory? The Lord of Hosts (Angels), he is the King of glory". Thus Christ, the Lord of glory, will be especially clearly associated with the Angels as He approaches Jerusalem. He comes with all the Holy Angels with Him, with “saints”, i:e. Angels, to relieve the invasion of the latter-day Sennacherib.</p><h2></h2>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>By David-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This Psalm is based around the alphabet. But the letters beth and vav are omitted, instead of koph there is resh; and the he section is doubled at the end. This isn't careless construction or corruption, but rather does Hebrew poetry function through such intentional omissions or departures from an expected pattern:&nbsp;</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>To You, Yahweh, do I lift up my soul-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>There is a repeated Biblical theme that the believer's relationship with the Father too is essentially mutual. David lifts himself up to God (<a href='B:230 25:1'>Psa 25:1</a>; <a href='B:230 28:2'>Psa 28:2</a>; <a href='B:230 86:4'>Psa 86:4</a>), and asks God to lift up Himself in response (<a href='B:230 7:6'>Psa 7:6</a>; <a href='B:230 10:12'>Psa 10:12</a>; <a href='B:230 94:2'>Psa 94:2</a>). Lifting up is the language of sacrifice; David sees himself as a priest offering himself.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>My God, I have trusted in You; don’t let me be shamed-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Typical of men of his time, David seems to fear shame more than death itself. Defeat meant shame, and he desperately begged not to be shamed. Perhaps it was the function of his failure with Bathsheba to help him redefine the motives for his trust in God.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Don’t let my enemies triumph over me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>These are the words of Hannah (<a href='B:90 2:1'>1Sa 2:1</a>). David had the humility to be influenced by a woman's words, something unusual for males of his time.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Truly, no one who waits for You shall be shamed. They shall be shamed who deal treacherously without cause-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As noted on :2, David had to be taught that those who wait upon / serve God can be shamed, by their sins. And it was David who dealt with Uriah treacherously without cause.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Show me Your ways, Yahweh, teach me Your paths-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Seeing David had access to the existing scriptures, as Psalms 119 shows, this indicates that David believed that God could show him His ways in a way other than simply reading the text of the Bible. Just as is true today, and as is often mentioned in Psalms 119, God is willing to operate directly on the hearts of men in a way over and above His written word. David realized this, and asked to be taught and shown God's ways (<a href='B:230 25:4'>Psa 25:4</a>; <a href='B:230 143:8'>Psa 143:8</a>). "Show" is the usual word for 'to know'. Knowledge in its ultimate, spiritual sense is not attained simply by reading or hearing the text of the Bible; not that I am at all decrying that. But there is a higher, Divine hand at work in making us know Divine knowledge. Moses had prayed the same words in <a href='B:20 33:13'>Exo 33:13</a>: "Show me [make me to know] Your way, that I may know [s:w. "show"] You [and] find grace in Your sight". The gift of knowledge, in the Hebraic sense of relationship, is related to God's grace. That knowledge which is in view is not the same as technical, theological knowledge. Moses' prayer was answered; the same words are used in saying that God "made known His ways to Moses" (<a href='B:230 103:7'>Psa 103:7</a>):&nbsp;</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Guide me in Your truth, and teach me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As noted on :4, the desire for guidance or being led suggests that there is a higher power available, beyond a man engaging alone with God's word and seeking to obey it in his own strength. The idea is beyond that of guidance; the same word is translated "make me to go in the path of Your commandments" (<a href='B:230 119:35'>Psa 119:35</a>). It is the word used for a bow being bent; the idea is of God's hand directly and forcefully acting upon a willing human mind. The idea of the gift of the Holy Spirit is the New Testament equivalent of thIsa.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For You are the God of my salvation; I wait for You all day long-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David wanted to be guided because he knew that the end point of the path was "my salvation". His 'waiting' can be understood as an idiom for 'serving', or a waiting for salvation to be revealed in his lifetime.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yahweh, remember Your tender mercies and Your grace, for they are from old times-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Mercy and grace often refer to the Abrahamic covenant, made in "old times". David perceived God's entire path with His people as being of "tender mercies", whereas the skeptic will not see His path in history that way.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Don’t remember the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>It should be noted that the sin of adultery is not highlighted in Nathan's rebuke of David, but rather that David had "killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and hast taken his wife to be thy wife". This is twice emphasized in <a href='B:100 12:9-10'>2Sa 12:9-10</a>. This is not to say that the sin of weakness, of the moment, was irrelevant in God's sight. But the emphasis on how he had taken Bathsheba as his wife hints that this had been his long term intention, further suggesting that his sin with her was the end result of much prior meditation. This further illuminates the way in which David speaks of his sin with Bathsheba as if it comprised a whole multitude of other sins: "I acknowledged my sin (singular) unto thee::. I said, I will confess my transgressions (plural)" (<a href='B:230 32:5'>Psa 32:5</a> cp. 38:3,4,18). <a href='B:230 25:7'>Psa 25:7</a> also occurs in a&nbsp; Bathsheba context: "Remember not the sins of my youth::."; as if facing up to his sin with Bathsheba made David face up to sins of years ago, possibly also in a sexual context.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Remember me according to Your grace, for Your goodness’ sake, Yahweh-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Remember me" carries the connotation of 'remember me for good and therefore forgive me at the judgment' in <a href='B:70 16:28'>Jdg 16:28</a>; <a href='B:490 23:46'>Luk 23:46</a>.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Good and upright is Yahweh, therefore He will instruct sinners in the way-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David felt that his sin and its forgiveness was a time of instruction for him, and he vows to in turn teach sinners God's way (<a href='B:230 32:1'>Psa 32:1</a> etc:). God wishes to manifest Himself through our witness; He wants to use each one of us as a witness to Himself. <a href='B:730 12:11'>Rev 12:11</a> may imply that our testimony to others is proportionate to our victory against the devil. Preaching is therefore an expression of basic righteousness. God teaches sinners His ways because He is essentially good (<a href='B:230 25:8'>Psa 25:8</a>); and if we are righteous, we will manifest Him in thIsa.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>He will guide the humble in justice; He will teach the humble His way-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>To receive the guidance and teaching discussed on :4,5, we must be humble, as the clay must be soft to be worked by the Divine hand. Comparing with the context of :8, David parallels “the meek” and the repentant sinner (:8,9). The publican was so worried about his own position before God that he paid no attention, so we sense, to the hypocritical brother next to him: “The publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for </p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>he that humbleth himself shall be exalted” (<a href='B:490 18:13-14'>Luk 18:13-14</a>). That sin-conscious man is an essay in self-humbling.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>All the ways of Yahweh are grace and truth to such as keep His covenant and His testimonies-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Grace and truth" is a term associated with the promises to Abraham, which formed the new covenant. If that covenant was kept, then God would lead those within it- in grace and truth. See on :13.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For Your name’s sake, Yahweh, pardon my iniquity, for it is great-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>See on <a href='B:20 32:32'>Exo 32:32</a>. David, realizing he was seen by God as a representative of his people, prayed for forgiveness in that he realized that he was thereby a pattern for all the wayward people of God. “For Your name’s sake, O Lord, pardon my iniquity; for it is great” is an undoubted reference to Moses praying for Israel’s forgiveness relating to the golden calf (<a href='B:20 32:30-31'>Exo 32:30-31</a>). He saw himself as both Moses in prayer and also guilty Israel. He saw Bathsheba had been his golden calf idol, mixing as it had done sexual abandon with an appearance of Yahweh worship. There was nobody to pray for him apart from himself. He saw himself as all Israel, savable only by pure grace and the sincere prayer of a mediator- even if the mediator himself was guilty. God's Name is His character and personality (<a href='B:20 34:5-7'>Exo 34:5-7</a>), and integral to that is His desire to forgive.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>What man is he who fears Yahweh? He shall instruct him in the way that he shall choose-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The man who fears Yahweh is the repentant, humbled sinner who is open to instruction (:8,9). This is the man who fears Yahweh and His judgments in a way they should be feared. The Father opens up new ways of understanding for us each, of His choosing and according to our individual needs, in response to our living a God-fearing life. If our hearts are knit together in brotherly love, the more we will understand- for true understanding is, in the end, to fathom the depths of God’s love (<a href='B:580 2:2'>Col 2:2</a>).</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>His soul shall dwell at ease, His descendants shall inherit the land-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David here appropriates the promises to Abraham to himself (see on :10). He saw the outcome of the promised blessing as peace with God, knowing that we have been forgiven (:8,10). And this is how the New Testament interprets the Abrahamic blessing (<a href='B:510 3:25-26'>Act 3:25-26</a>):&nbsp;</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The friendship of Yahweh is with those who fear Him; He will show them His covenant-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Friendship" is better "secret" or "council". What is so awesome is that the Hebrew word sod, 'council' or 'court', is something open to us as mortals. In Biblical times, Kings had their sod, their gathering of intimate advisors and ministers. But we, mere mortals on earth, are invited to be part of the sod of God Almighty, having His purpose and plans revealed to us (<a href='B:230 25:14'>Psa 25:14</a>; <a href='B:220 29:4'>Job 29:4</a>). But sod members weren't passive listeners; they gave their advice and requests, and the King factored that into His decision making. This is a picture of the power of prayer from those who have understood the way and essence of the King of Heaven.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>God’s doctrines are described as a secret, a mystery; the Hebrew word used in this connection means ‘A confidential plan revealed to intimate friends’; and yet they are revealed to the true believers (<a href='B:370 3:7-8'>Amo 3:7-8</a>; <a href='B:300 23:18'>Jer 23:18</a>; <a href='B:300 23:22'>Jer 23:22</a> AV mg:; <a href='B:230 25:14'>Psa 25:14</a>; <a href='B:560 3:3-6'>Eph 3:3-6</a>). Therefore the congregation of true believers is called “the secret assembly of the saints”(<a href='B:230 89:7'>Psa 89:7</a> Heb:). There are many Bibles around, but God’s doctrines are to some extent a secret, and not understood by many of those who possess and read the Bible. It therefore follows that the Bible must be written in such a way as to conceal Truth from the majority of readers.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>My eyes are ever on Yahweh, for He will pluck my feet out of the net-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The metaphor suggests that instead of looking carefully at his feet to ensure he didn't step into a net or trap, David's eyes instead were looking upwards to Yahweh. See on <a href='B:230 26:3'>Psa 26:3</a>.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Turn to me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The phrase used of God having respect to those in covenant with Him (<a href='B:30 26:9'>Lev 26:9</a>); the theme of covenant relationship is clearly in David's mind (:10,13,14).</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>And have mercy on me, for I am desolate and afflicted-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This would be appropriate to how David felt when ill and politically isolated after his sin with Bathsheba.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The troubles of my heart are enlarged. Oh bring me out of my distresses!<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>These troubles of the heart surely refer to his feelings at the time after the sin with Bathsheba. David's mind was on how Jacob and Joseph had been rescued from their "troubles" (s:w. <a href='B:10 35:3'>Gen 35:3</a>; <a href='B:10 42:21'>Gen 42:21</a>). Such "troubles" come to those who break covenant (<a href='B:50 31:17'>Deu 31:17</a>; <a href='B:50 31:21'>Deu 31:21</a>), and David is asking for covenant relationship to be restored (:10,13,14,16).</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Consider my affliction and my travail, forgive all my sins-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David perceived that his affliction was a result of his sins; yet he saw it as "travail", pregnant with the hope of restored relationship with God and a new birth to a new life with Him.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Consider my enemies, for they are many; they hate me with total hatred-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The sin with Bathsheba led to David having enemies, within his own family, and also within Bathsheba's family. For Ahithophel David's counsellor was her grandfather.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Oh keep my soul, and deliver me; let me not be disappointed, for I take refuge in You-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Disappointed" is s:w. "ashamed" in :2. Typical of men of his time, David seems to fear shame more than death itself. Defeat meant shame, and he desperately begged not to be shamed. Perhaps it was the function of his failure with Bathsheba to help him redefine the motives for his trust in God.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Let integrity and uprightness preserve me, for I wait for You-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'> If David means that his own previous integrity and uprightness should preserve him, then he was arguing for salvation by works. And if he intended to from then on promise integrity, then he also failed in that. He still hasn't come to a total casting of himself upon God's grace. “I shall now perish one day by the hand of Saul” was surely a collapse of faith and "uprightness" (<a href='B:90 27:1'>1Sa 27:1</a>). And it led to the way in which David deceived Achish by pretending he was attacking Jewish towns, when in fact he was going out and attacking the Amalekite settlements, killing all men, women and children in them so that nobody was left alive to tell that it was David who had attacked them (<a href='B:90 27:8-10'>1Sa 27:8-10</a>). Innocent people were slain by David’s sword for the ‘political’ reason that he had to keep Achish ‘in the dark’ about what he was really up to. And so in case a 5 year old say something incriminating later, David simply killed the little boy. Indeed, when Achish later says that David would be best not to go with him to fight Saul, David hypocritically says: “But what have I done? And what have you found in your servant so long as I have been with you unto this day, that I may not go fight against the enemies [i:e. Saul] of my lord the king?” (<a href='B:90 29:8'>1Sa 29:8</a>). This was hardly an example of the “integrity” and “uprightness” which David glorifies in his Psalms, and which he insisted he was full of (<a href='B:230 25:21'>Psa 25:21</a>). Indeed he claims that his integrity is the basis of his acceptance by God (<a href='B:230 26:1'>Psa 26:1</a>).</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Redeem Israel, God, out all of His troubles- </p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David parallels his own afflictions and need for forgiveness with Israel’s need for redemption (<a href='B:230 25:18'>Psa 25:18</a>; <a href='B:230 25:22'>Psa 25:22</a>); or how the saving strength of Yahweh’s anointed (i:e. David) was to be Israel’s saving strength likewise (<a href='B:230 28:8-9'>Psa 28:8-9</a>). This is why his Psalms were reused in later historical contexts within Israel. The feelings and pulse of David are expressed at more length than those of any other Bible character; and therefore in these we are to see something of the Lord we follow. It is significant that David is seen as the representative of Israel, just as was and is the Lord- hence, e:g:, the confusion between “the city of Judah” and “the city of David” (<a href='B:120 14:20'>2Ki 14:20</a> cp. <a href='B:140 25:28'>2Ch 25:28</a> AVmg:). But this is an alphabetical Psalm, the :21 was already the last letter of the alphabet, and it is now repeated. This could imply that this verse was added later, under inspiration, because it was so well perceived that David was a patter for all God's subsequent people.</p><h2></h2>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>By David.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Judge me, Yahweh, for I have walked in my integrity. I have trusted also in Yahweh without wavering-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>What David learnt from the Bathsheba failure is in essence what we all have to learn. Psalms 26 was surely written before he sinned with her. He speaks of how he had walked in integrity before God “without wavering” (<a href='B:230 26:1'>Psa 26:1</a> RV), and how his foot did not slip (<a href='B:230 26:12'>Psa 26:12</a>). He was yet to "walk" upon the roof of his house and lust after Bathsheba. What else does this evidently pre-Bathsheba Psalm indicate about David’s attitude, and what changed after Bathsheba? He speaks in <a href='B:230 26:5'>Psa 26:5</a> of how he refuses to sit at table with sinners. Yet the Lord rejoiced to do just thIsa. He contrasts his righteousness with the sinfulness of the wicked (<a href='B:230 26:10-11'>Psa 26:10-11</a>)- a far cry from Paul’s insistence in Romans that we have sinned just as much as the world has, in the sense that we desperately need salvation by grace. When David asks for forgiveness in <a href='B:230 26:11'>Psa 26:11</a> (“redeem me, and be merciful unto me”), he therefore was apparently asking for mercy in an almost technical way, perhaps seeing the only mercy he required as a resurrection from the dead. &nbsp;All these attitudes changed radically after his Bathsheba experience. He could look back and reflect how “As for me, I said in my prosperity, I shall never be moved” (<a href='B:230 30:6'>Psa 30:6</a>), perhaps looking back to <a href='B:230 26:10'>Psa 26:10</a>, where he had felt confident his foot had never been moved. And he speaks of how he only stands strong because of God’s gracious favour (<a href='B:230 30:7'>Psa 30:7</a>). God works through sin and failure- to bring us to know His grace. We follow the same learning curve as David, if we are truly God’s man or woman.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>“I shall now perish one day by the hand of Saul” is surely a collapse of faith (<a href='B:90 27:1'>1Sa 27:1</a>). And it led to the way in which David deceived Achish by pretending he was attacking Jewish towns, when in fact he was going out and attacking the Amalekite settlements, killing all men, women and children in them so that nobody was left alive to tell that it was David who had attacked them (<a href='B:90 27:8-10'>1Sa 27:8-10</a>). Innocent people were slain by David’s sword for the ‘political’ reason that he had to keep Achish ‘in the dark’ about what he was really up to. And so in case a 5 year old say something incriminating later, David simply killed the little boy. Indeed, when Achish later says that David would be best not to go with him to fight Saul, David hypocritically says: “But what have I done? And what have you found in your servant so long as I have been with you unto this day, that I may not go fight against the enemies [i:e. Saul] of my lord the king?” (<a href='B:90 29:8'>1Sa 29:8</a>). This was hardly an example of the “integrity” and “uprightness” which David glorifies in his Psalms, and which he insisted he was full of (<a href='B:230 25:21'>Psa 25:21</a>). Indeed he claims that his integrity is the basis of his acceptance by God (<a href='B:230 26:1'>Psa 26:1</a>).</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Examine me, Yahweh, and prove me; test my heart and my mind-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David was confident not only of legalistic obedience but also of a heart in which God would find nothing wrong. Indeed David had been considered a man after God's own heart&nbsp; (<a href='B:90 13:14'>1Sa 13:14</a>), but it seems this led David to assume that from then on, his heart would be always found perfect before God. He didn't remain the idealistic, spiritually minded shepherd boy. And this assumption that how he was at one point in his life was how he would always be::. led him into his sin with Bathsheba.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For Your grace is before my eyes, I have walked in Your truth-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Grace and truth often refer to the covenant with Abraham, which David so often alludes to and feels bound to. We notice that his eyes were not upon the path of his feet, but were toward God and His grace; that meant that in practice, he would walk in "truth". The same idea is in <a href='B:230 25:15'>Psa 25:15</a> "My eyes are ever on Yahweh, for He will pluck my feet out of the net". The metaphor suggests that instead of looking carefully at his feet to ensure he didn't step into a net or trap, David's eyes instead were looking upwards to Yahweh. And so here too, if the focus of our eyes is upward towards God's grace, then we will naturally walk in the path of truth. So often religious people have put the emphasis the other way around; truth in the sense of theoretical purity of understanding has been given the priority, and with eyes down upon that, the wonder of God's grace has not been the guiding light of their walk.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I have not sat with deceitful men, neither will I go in with hypocrites-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>So often David makes reference to his hypocritical enemies within Israel, and the judgments to come upon the wicked (<a href='B:230 1:1'>Psa 1:1</a>; <a href='B:230 4:3'>Psa 4:3</a>; <a href='B:230 5:5'>Psa 5:5</a>; <a href='B:230 15:4'>Psa 15:4</a>; <a href='B:230 26:4-5'>Psa 26:4-5</a>; <a href='B:230 35:3-8'>Psa 35:3-8</a>; <a href='B:230 45:7'>Psa 45:7</a>; <a href='B:230 52:6'>Psa 52:6</a>; <a href='B:230 58:6'>Psa 58:6</a>; <a href='B:230 104:35'>Psa 104:35</a>; <a href='B:230 109:5-20'>Psa 109:5-20</a>; <a href='B:230 137:8-9'>Psa 137:8-9</a>; <a href='B:230 139:21'>Psa 139:21</a>). The hypocrisy in view may refer to the prevalent idolatry which was deceit against God, and not simply to their two faced behaviour to David personally.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I hate the assembly of evildoers, and will not sit with the wicked-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Throughout David’s Psalms in Psalms 1-72, he repeatedly asks for torture upon the sinners and blessing upon himself as the righteous. He speaks of how sinners should be “contemned” in the eyes of the righteous (<a href='B:230 15:4'>Psa 15:4</a>), the gatherings of sinners should be “hated” and sinners should not be fellowshipped (<a href='B:230 26:4-6'>Psa 26:4-6</a>; <a href='B:230 31:6'>Psa 31:6</a>) and how God’s uprightness is shown to the upright and His judgment to the judgmental (<a href='B:230 18:25-26'>Psa 18:25-26</a>; <a href='B:230 33:22'>Psa 33:22</a>). He invites God’s judgment upon himself and others according to their and his works (<a href='B:230 28:4'>Psa 28:4</a>). Frequently he alludes to Saul as “the violent man”- even though David committed his share of violence- and asks judgment upon him (<a href='B:230 18:48'>Psa 18:48</a>). Only those with clean hands and pure heart like himself could have fellowship with God (<a href='B:230 24:3-4'>Psa 24:3-4</a>). Psalms 37 doesn’t indicate any desire to convert the sinners but rather an expectation of their judgment and destruction. God and David laugh at the wicked because their day is coming (<a href='B:230 37:13'>Psa 37:13</a>). There’s no spirit of grace here at all- perhaps that’s why <a href='B:450 12:10'>Zec 12:10</a> specifically says that the spirit of grace will have to be poured out upon the house of David in the last days. This attitude changed after the sin with Bathsheba, but still something of the old self righteousness and judgmental attitudes are to be found in David in Psalms written after that.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I will wash my hands in innocence-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David's insistence upon his own purity (see on :2) may not necessarily be naive self-righteousness, but rather a reflection of his faith in God's cleansing, which has thereby made him innocent before God. This is also an allusion to the priests washing before they came to the altar (<a href='B:20 30:17-21'>Exo 30:17-21</a>). We note David acted as a priest even though he was not a Levite.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>So I will go around Your altar, Yahweh-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Walking around the altar in procession was not required by the Mosaic law, but was clearly done by other religions. We recall the priests of Baal doing so on Mount Carmel. Perhaps this and other Psalms were sung during such processions around the altar.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>that I may make the voice of thanksgiving to be heard, and tell of all Your wondrous works-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As noted on :6, it would appear that whilst marching around the altar, this and other Psalms were sung in praise, including the recounting of God's works in history.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yahweh, I love the habitation of Your dwelling place, the place where Your glory dwells-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David contrasts his love of the sanctuary (where God dwelt, <a href='B:20 25:8'>Exo 25:8</a>) and the shekinah glory with his dislike of the gatherings of sinners (:5). The implication could be that those gatherings also had a religious dimension, which involved idolatry. We see the power of idolatry in that despite the visible presence of the shekinah, men still worshipped idols- proof enough that visible miracle is no absolute basis for faith or spiritual behaviour:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Whilst on the run from Saul, David longed to be in the "place::. and habitation / dwelling" of Yahweh, at the sanctuary operated by Samuel. There was no temple, but Yahweh still had a place and dwelling on earth. But later in <a href='B:230 132:5'>Psa 132:5</a> David seems to feel that Yahweh needed a more grandiose "place::. dwelling" (s:w:), otherwise He would have no dwelling place. Over the years, he had come to focus more upon the physical and external rather than upon the essential and the spiritual. This is a tendency for all of us:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Don’t gather my soul with sinners, nor my life with bloodthirsty men-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>In describing his feelings after the Bathsheba experience, David comments that he was "as a man that hears not [the taunts of others against him], and in whose mouth are no rebukes" (<a href='B:230 38:14'>Psa 38:14</a>). The pre-Bathsheba Psalms present David as a man who was so easily hurt by the taunts of others, and whose mouth was indeed full of rebuke of others. Psalms 24, 25, 26 are full of David explaining that fellowship with God was dependent upon a man's "integrity", walking in truth, hating sinners, personal innocence, "uprightness", clean hands and pure heart. And throughout these Psalms, David holds up himself as the great example.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>in whose hands is wickedness, their right hand is full of bribes-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This appears to be commentary upon the state of affairs under Saul's kingship and Absalom's corruption; but the later prophets so often criticize the leadership of Israel for taking bribes, and perhaps this was rewritten in order to make this point to those later generations.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>But as for me, I will walk in my integrity. Redeem me, and be merciful to me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The two halves of this verse are an intentional contrast. David is persuaded of his own integrity, but he realizes he still needs mercy and redemption; he therefore asked for forgiveness for his sins of ignorance:&nbsp; Paul had a similar sense (<a href='B:530 4:4'>1Co 4:4</a>). It was this abiding sense of the need for God's mercy which was David's salvation.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>My foot stands in an even place-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The idea may be as in <a href='B:230 27:11'>Psa 27:11</a>, that he felt he was being led in a path where there were no spiritual stumblingblocks.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>In the congregations I will bless Yahweh- It is the struggle of every spiritually minded and righteous man to humble himself to accept he is only part of a far wider congregation, comprised of believers who may frankly be less spiritually minded than himself (<a href='B:230 26:12'>Psa 26:12</a>; <a href='B:230 35:18'>Psa 35:18</a>; <a href='B:230 68:26'>Psa 68:26</a>). David and the Lord Jesus are parade examples of achieving this sense.</p><h2></h2>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>By David-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The references to armies and war being against David (:3) suggest this Psalm was written whilst fleeing Saul or Absalom. David's great longing was for the sanctuary (:4) which he was excluded from, and his desire was to return there. And yet he still feels God's presence with him in exile. These Psalms were therefore understandably used for the exiles in captivity.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yahweh is my light and my salvation-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'> whom shall I fear? Yahweh is the strength of my life-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'> of whom shall I be afraid?<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The reference to "light" may be because David so loved seeing the shekinah glory over the ark in the sanctuary: "Yahweh, I love the habitation of Your dwelling place, the place where Your glory dwells" (<a href='B:230 26:8'>Psa 26:8</a>). On the run, he had no access to the sanctuary, and had actually sent the ark back to Zion when he fled from Absalom. And yet he feels that God's "light" is still with him wherever he Isa. And all those unable to access church meetings and the visible gatherings of God's people can know the same. Likewise David was fleeing away from the "stronghold" of Zion, but felt that God was His strength or stronghold.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>When evildoers came at me to eat up my flesh, even my adversaries and my foes, they stumbled and fell-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Came upon me to eat up my flesh" (AV). This is what Ahithophel proposed at the time of Absalom's uprising; to 'come upon' David, as the dew falls (<a href='B:100 17:12'>2Sa 17:12</a>), aiming to totally destroy David. But they were the ones who were to fall (s:w:):&nbsp;</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Though an army should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear. Though war should rise against me, even then I will be confident-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Perhaps a reference to Ahithophel's advice to surround David with a huge army, at the time of Absalom's rebellion. The conditional "though an army::." is appropriate in that Ahithophel's advice was not actually implemented.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>One thing I have asked of Yahweh, that I will seek after: That I may dwell in the house of Yahweh all the days of my life, to see Yahweh’s beauty, and to inquire in His temple-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David's simple desire was to be able to again worship God in the sanctuary on Mount Zion. Under inspiration, this is rewritten and reapplied to the exiles and their desire to return to the temple; for there was no temple in David's lifetime.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Often, “desire” is seen by God as prayer (<a href='B:230 10:17'>Psa 10:17</a>; <a href='B:230 21:2'>Psa 21:2</a>; <a href='B:230 27:4'>Psa 27:4</a>; <a href='B:230 59:10'>Psa 59:10</a>; <a href='B:230 92:11'>Psa 92:11</a>; <a href='B:230 140:8'>Psa 140:8</a>; <a href='B:230 145:19'>Psa 145:19</a>; <a href='B:470 18:32'>Mat 18:32</a>; <a href='B:520 10:1'>Rom 10:1</a>; <a href='B:690 5:15'>1Jn 5:15</a>). God interprets that inner desire as prayer, even if it is not articulated in specific requests.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For in the day of trouble He will keep me secretly in His pavilion, under the shadow of His tabernacle He will hide me. He will lift me up on a rock-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Although David was exiled from the sanctuary (:4), he felt he was within the tabernacle, even under the shadow of the cherubic wings over the ark; with the shekinah glory as it were around him, over the blood of atonement sprinkled upon the mercy seat. Again and again, Old Testament incidents taught that the intensest presence of God was not in fact in the Jerusalem sanctuary, but in the hearts of sincere, exiled believers. And so it has often been in the later Christian experience; spirituality and the most active presence of God has often been experienced in exile from the established, visible sanctuaries. See on <a href='B:230 29:8'>Psa 29:8</a>.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Now my head will be lifted up above my enemies around me, I will offer sacrifices of joy in His tent. I will sing, yes, I will sing praises to Yahweh-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David looked forward to returning to the sanctuary in Zion and praising God for his salvation from his enemies. However when Absalom was slain, his head was not at all lifted up.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Hear, Yahweh, when I cry with my voice. Have mercy also on me, and answer me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Have mercy" or 'give graciously' is the word of Jacob when seeking to return from exile, yet facing apparently insuperable obstacles (<a href='B:10 33:5'>Gen 33:5</a>; <a href='B:10 33:11'>Gen 33:11</a>). Time and again we see the example of taking strength from historical (Biblical) precedents.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>When You said, Seek my face, my heart said to You, I will seek Your face, Yahweh-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This can be understood as David's plea to be allowed back into the Jerusalem sanctuary to worship / seek God. Hence GNB "When you said, "Come worship me," I answered, "I will come, LORD"". But David appears somewhat manipulative in this argument, because he is experiencing the sanctuary presence of God from far outside it (see on :5).</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>We are frequently reminded in the prophets that the spiritual way of life is one which is seeking God. We are to seek His face (<a href='B:230 24:6'>Psa 24:6</a>; <a href='B:230 27:8'>Psa 27:8</a>)- which it is impossible to behold (<a href='B:20 33:20'>Exo 33:20</a>). Actually finding God in the ultimate sense is therefore unattainable in this life; but our whole mortal life must be lived in this spirit of seeking ultimate perfection. Seeking God is often defined in the prophets as forsaking our sins and desiring to be righteous (<a href='B:370 5:5'>Amo 5:5</a>; <a href='B:370 5:8'>Amo 5:8</a>; <a href='B:370 5:14-15'>Amo 5:14-15</a>). None of us are completely successful in our seeking of God, and therefore it follows that none of is completely forsakes all our sinfulness.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The historical point when God invited David to seek His face may have been when Samuel anointed David, and gave him the message that he was to be king. And doubtless David was told at the time that he was to seek God's face. When under persecution by Saul, when the promise of kingship seemed so far from fulfilment, David reminds God that he had indeed sought His face as required; and asks God to fulfil the prophetic word about kingship (<a href='B:230 119:58'>Psa 119:58</a>).</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Don’t hide Your face from me; don’t put Your servant away in anger. You have been my help, don’t abandon me, neither forsake me, God of my salvation-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David feels that his suffering at Absalom's hand is a result of his sin with Bathsheba (which indeed it was), but is making the mistake of assuming that suffering the consequences of sin means that sin hasn't been forgiven. Or we can reflect that Paul can speak in Romans 7 as if he is two different people; “I myself serve the law of God”, but “my flesh” serves sin. Likewise David asked God not to hide His face from him, David personally, (<a href='B:230 27:9'>Psa 27:9</a>; <a href='B:230 69:17'>Psa 69:17</a>; <a href='B:230 102:2'>Psa 102:2</a>; <a href='B:230 143:7'>Psa 143:7</a>), but to hide His face from David’s sins (<a href='B:230 51:9'>Psa 51:9</a>). And one wonders whether the way the records of the Lord’s temptations are written implies some similar recognition by the Spirit of the two ‘men’ within the Lord.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>When my father and my mother forsake me, then Yahweh will take me up-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'> He evidently loved his parents and expected their passing when he wrote thIsa. Perhaps therefore the Psalm had its genesis in David's experience when fleeing from Saul, when he sent his parents to Moab for safety (<a href='B:90 22:3'>1Sa 22:3</a>). But now he edits the Psalm and develops it with reference to his flight from Absalom. And yet 'forsaking' could imply they turned against him. This would then make David's sufferings the more poignant. David loved his parents, especially caring for their safe keeping in his wilderness years; only to be forsaken by them (the Hebrew means just that), and to be rejected by his brothers and sisters (<a href='B:230 27:10'>Psa 27:10</a>; <a href='B:230 38:11'>Psa 38:11</a>; <a href='B:230 69:8'>Psa 69:8</a>; <a href='B:230 88:18'>Psa 88:18</a>).</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This speaks Messianically of the Lord’s sense of being forsaken. The disciples forsook Him (<a href='B:470 26:56'>Mat 26:56</a>), His mother left Him, on John’s arm, and so the words of <a href='B:230 27:9-10'>Psa 27:9-10</a> started to come true: "Leave me not, neither forsake me, O God::. when my father and my mother forsake me" . All His scaffolding was being removed. He had leaned on His disciples (<a href='B:490 22:28'>Luk 22:28</a>), He had naturally leaned on His mother. Now they had forsaken Him. And now His mother had forsaken Him. And so He pleaded with His true Father not to leave Him. And hence the agony, the deep agony of <a href='B:470 27:46'>Mat 27:46</a>: "My God, my God, Why hast thou (this is where the emphasis should be) forsaken me?".</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Teach me Your way, Yahweh. Lead me in a straight path, because of my enemies-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>When David fled Jerusalem from Absalom, he apparently had no clear game plan. He didn't know quite where to go, as Absalom appeared to have garnered mass popularity. And yet David felt he was being led in a straight path; God likewise would lead the exiles in a straight path if they repented and wished to be truly restored to Zion (s:w. <a href='B:290 40:4'>Isa 40:4</a>; <a href='B:290 42:16'>Isa 42:16</a> s:w:).</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Don’t deliver me over to the desire of my adversaries, for false witnesses have risen up against me, such as breathe out cruelty-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>So many of the Psalms contain references to Saul's smear campaign against David (<a href='B:230 27:12'>Psa 27:12</a>; <a href='B:230 31:13'>Psa 31:13</a>; <a href='B:230 109:23'>Psa 109:23</a> cp. <a href='B:90 26:19'>1Sa 26:19</a>). This frequency of reference in itself indicates the weight with which this tragedy rested upon David's mind:&nbsp;And it seems this situation repeated at the time of Absalom's rebellion, to which this psalm was reapplied by David:&nbsp;</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I am still confident of this: I will see the goodness of Yahweh in the land of the living-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This appears to be another reference to David's desire to be restored to the sanctuary in Zion, to see the shekinah glory which he saw as the quintessence of God's goodness.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Wait for Yahweh, be strong, and let your heart take courage. Yes, wait for Yahweh- </p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Again we see David understanding his experiences as setting a pattern for others. This is the way to use suffering, as <a href='B:540 1:4-7'>2Co 1:4-7</a> makes clear. The way David's Psalms were rewritten for use in other contexts is evidence enough that his desire was fulfilled. The hearts or spirits of others were to "take courage". The Greek and Hebrew words translated&nbsp; 'spirit' don't only mean 'power'. They frequently refer to the mind / heart. We read of God giving men a new heart, a new spirit; of Him working on men's hearts to make them do His will. He gives them a new spirit. This doesn't mean that they of their own volition have the power of the Holy Spirit gifts, as, e:g:, some in the early church did. God will strengthen the heart / spirit of those who try to be strong (<a href='B:230 27:14'>Psa 27:14</a>; <a href='B:230 31:24'>Psa 31:24</a>). He can even, somehow, withhold men from sinning (<a href='B:10 20:6'>Gen 20:6</a>), and keep us from falling (<a href='B:720 1:24'>Jud 1:24</a>). We should therefore have no essential objection to the idea of the Lord granting us His Spirit, in the sense of His thinking, His heart / mind.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>We’re familiar with the references to God hardening the heart of Pharaoh (<a href='B:20 14:8'>Exo 14:8</a> etc:). However, the same Hebrew words occur in a positive context- for God also hardens or strengthens the hearts of the righteous (<a href='B:230 27:14'>Psa 27:14</a>; <a href='B:290 35:4'>Isa 35:4</a>). Indeed, <a href='B:290 35:4'>Isa 35:4</a> speaks of how the righteous shouldn’t have a weak or [Heb:] ‘fluid’ heart, but rather a hardened one. Clearly enough, God solidifies human attitudes, one way or the other. This is a sobering thought- for He is prepared to confirm a person in their weak thinking. But on the other hand, even the weakest basic intention towards righteousness is solidified by Him too.</p><h2></h2>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>By David.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>To You, Yahweh, I call. My rock, don’t be deaf to me; lest, if You are silent to me, I would become like those who go down into the pit-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Rocks are only a place of safety if they have caves within them. The imagery suggests this is a wilderness Psalm, whilst David was on the run from Saul. Indeed this is how probably most of the Psalms originated, although they were edited for relevance to later situations and generations:&nbsp; </p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Hear the voice of my petitions when I cry to You, when I lift up my hands toward Your Most Holy Place-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>There is a repeated Biblical theme that the believer's relationship with the Father too is essentially mutual. David lifts himself up to God (<a href='B:230 25:1'>Psa 25:1</a>; <a href='B:230 28:2'>Psa 28:2</a>; <a href='B:230 86:4'>Psa 86:4</a>), and asks God to lift up Himself in response (<a href='B:230 7:6'>Psa 7:6</a>; <a href='B:230 10:12'>Psa 10:12</a>; <a href='B:230 94:2'>Psa 94:2</a>). David at this point is in exile from the sanctuary but still prays towards it. This therefore became appropriate material for the Jewish captives of later generations.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Don’t draw me away with the wicked-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This is the language of final condemnation. David is asking not to be condemned along with the wicked at the last day.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>With the workers of iniquity who speak peace with their neighbours, but mischief is in their hearts-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Clearly David has in view specific people with whom he mixed, but knew they would be condemned at the last day. We query whether such judgment of others' salvation was appropriate.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Give them according to their work, and according to the wickedness of their doings. Give them according to the working of their own hands; bring back on them what they deserve-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Throughout David’s Psalms in Psalms 1-72, he repeatedly asks for torture upon the sinners and blessing upon himself as the righteous. He speaks of how sinners should be “contemned” in the eyes of the righteous (<a href='B:230 15:4'>Psa 15:4</a>), the gatherings of sinners should be “hated” and sinners should not be fellowshipped (<a href='B:230 26:4-6'>Psa 26:4-6</a>; <a href='B:230 31:6'>Psa 31:6</a>) and how God’s uprightness is shown to the upright and His judgment to the judgmental (<a href='B:230 18:25-26'>Psa 18:25-26</a>; <a href='B:230 33:22'>Psa 33:22</a>). He invites God’s judgment upon himself and others according to their and his works (<a href='B:230 28:4'>Psa 28:4</a>):&nbsp; Frequently he alludes to Saul as “the violent man”- even though David committed his share of violence- and asks judgment upon him (<a href='B:230 18:48'>Psa 18:48</a>). Only those with clean hands and pure heart like himself could have fellowship with God (<a href='B:230 24:3-4'>Psa 24:3-4</a>). Psalms 37 doesn’t indicate any desire to convert the sinners but rather an expectation of their judgment and destruction. God and David laugh at the wicked because their day is coming (<a href='B:230 37:13'>Psa 37:13</a>). There’s no spirit of grace here at all- perhaps that’s why <a href='B:450 12:10'>Zec 12:10</a> specifically says that the spirit of grace will have to be poured out upon the house of David in the last days. This attitude changed after the sin with Bathsheba, but still something of the old self righteousness and judgmental attitudes are to be found in David in Psalms written after that.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Because they don’t respect the works of Yahweh, nor the working of His hands, He will break them down and not build them up-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This is alluded to in <a href='B:540 10:8'>2Co 10:8</a>; <a href='B:540 13:10'>2Co 13:10</a> about how we ought to build up the weak and condemned, rather than destroying them. It's as if Paul felt David had things the wrong way around at this point. See on :3,4.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Blessed be Yahweh, because He has heard the voice of my petitions-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As so often in the Psalms, there appears a change in attitude half way through them. What begins as desperate pleading turns into a peaceful sense of having been answered by God. This could have been because of some visible or audible answer coming in the course of the prayer. But I would suggest it is far truer to the experience of prayerful people that in the course of prayer, we who began in urgent pleading with God for action become convinced that in essence He has already responded. And we see this often in the Psalms.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yahweh is my strength and my shield. My heart has trusted in Him, and I have been helped; therefore my heart greatly rejoices. With my song I will thank Him-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This is another reference to Abraham, for whom Yahweh was a shield (<a href='B:10 15:1'>Gen 15:1</a>). As noted on :6, David feels motivated to thank God for answers which he has apparently not yet received.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yahweh is their strength-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Strength" is Yeshua. So we have here an allusion to 'Jesus Christ / the anointed'. </p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>He is a stronghold of salvation to His anointed-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>In Old Testament times, God described His whole people as His anointed one, His Christ: “The Lord is a strength unto his people, and he is the saving strength of his anointed” (<a href='B:230 28:8'>Psa 28:8</a> RVmg:). The whole people were His anointed King, His Messiah, the anointed one. And so it is for all those today who are “in Christ”. Thus the prophecy about Christ personally that He would tread upon snakes and wild animals (<a href='B:230 91:13'>Psa 91:13</a>) is quoted as being fulfilled in the disciples, who ‘were’ Christ on their preaching mission (<a href='B:490 10:19'>Luk 10:19</a>; <a href='B:480 16:18'>Mar 16:18</a>). Zion was the stronghold, but even outside the sanctuary, David realized God was just as much present and active.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Save Your people, and bless Your inheritance. Be their shepherd also, and bear them up forever- </p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The feelings and pulse of David are expressed at more length than those of any other Bible character; and therefore in these we are to see something of the Lord we follow. It is significant that David is seen as the representative of Israel ["be their shepherd also"], just as was and is the Lord- hence, e:g:, the confusion between “the city of Judah” and “the city of David” (<a href='B:120 14:20'>2Ki 14:20</a> cp. <a href='B:140 25:28'>2Ch 25:28</a> AVmg:). Or consider how David parallels his own afflictions and need for forgiveness with Israel’s need for redemption (<a href='B:230 25:18'>Psa 25:18</a>; <a href='B:230 25:22'>Psa 25:22</a>); or how the saving strength of Yahweh’s anointed (i:e. David) was to be Israel’s saving strength likewise (<a href='B:230 28:8-9'>Psa 28:8-9</a>).</p><h2></h2>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>A Psalm of David-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The last verse concludes: "A Song for the Dedication of the Temple". Perhaps this was written by David before his death in anticipation of the building of Solomon's temple.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Ascribe to Yahweh, you sons of the mighty, ascribe to Yahweh glory and strength-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This could refer to the Angels in the court of heaven (<a href='B:230 89:6'>Psa 89:6</a> cp. <a href='B:230 29:5'>Psa 29:5</a>; <a href='B:230 29:7'>Psa 29:7</a>). David saw his praise of God in the sanctuary as reflecting that of the Angels in the heavenly sanctuary, which was mirrored in the earthly one (<a href='B:650 9:23'>Heb 9:23</a>). &nbsp; </p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Ascribe to Yahweh the glory due to His name. Worship Yahweh in holy array-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As noted on :1, this was "A Song for the Dedication of the Temple". David therefore feels that the heavely temple is reflected in the earthly temple. As the priests in the earthly temple were clothed in “holy garments for glory and for beauty” (<a href='B:20 28:2'>Exo 28:2</a>) so were the Angels above.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yahweh’s voice is on the waters. The God of glory thunders, even Yahweh on many waters-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This is all the language of theophany (<a href='B:20 9:23'>Exo 9:23</a>; <a href='B:230 18:9'>Psa 18:9</a>; <a href='B:230 18:13'>Psa 18:13</a>; <a href='B:230 104:3'>Psa 104:3</a>; <a href='B:730 10:3'>Rev 10:3</a>). Perhaps David expected a theophany at the dedication of the temple, and the voice of Yahweh to be heard as at Sinai. But I have argued elsewhere that David's obsession with the physical temple was misplaced idealism. God only reluctantly accepted it; His immediate response to David's request to build Him a house was that He didn't want one. Therefore it could be that here we have David as it were running ahead of himself in expectation that God would respond to the temple with the theophany he expectantly hoped for in this psalm.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yahweh’s voice is powerful. Yahweh’s voice is full of majesty-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The sanctuary was full of power and majesty (<a href='B:230 96:6'>Psa 96:6</a> s:w:); David imagines God's voice booming in majesty through the new temple.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The voice of Yahweh breaks the cedars. Yes, Yahweh breaks in pieces the cedars of Lebanon-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David had made plans for cedars to be brought from Lebanon for the new temple. He imagines the voice of Yahweh tearing through the temple as a wind, stronger than the cedars.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>He also makes them to skip like a calf; Lebanon and Sirion like a young wild ox-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>GNB "He makes the mountains of Lebanon jump like calves and makes Mount Hermon leap like a young bull". It is as if the temple comes alive with joy now that God has entered it. And there is the idea that Lebanon and Hermon, from where the cedars came from, would join in response to God's word. For David ever had the hope of Gentile response to Israel's God.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yahweh’s voice strikes with flashes of lightning-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This is the language of theophany (<a href='B:20 9:23'>Exo 9:23</a>; <a href='B:230 18:9'>Psa 18:9</a>; <a href='B:230 18:13'>Psa 18:13</a>; <a href='B:230 104:3'>Psa 104:3</a>; <a href='B:730 10:3'>Rev 10:3</a>), which David hoped and expected would happen when the temple was dedicated; see on :1.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yahweh’s voice shakes the wilderness, Yahweh shakes the wilderness of Kadesh-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Kadesh" is the same word as "sanctuary" (e:g. <a href='B:230 20:2'>Psa 20:2</a>; <a href='B:230 63:2'>Psa 63:2</a>). The idea is that the wilderness is as holy as the sanctuary. This is a common theme in the Psalms. Although David was exiled from the sanctuary (<a href='B:230 27:4'>Psa 27:4</a>), he felt he was within the tabernacle, even under the shadow of the cherubic wings over the ark (<a href='B:230 27:5'>Psa 27:5</a>); with the shekinah glory as it were around him, over the blood of atonement sprinkled upon the mercy seat. Again and again, Old Testament incidents taught that the intensest presence of God was not in fact in the Jerusalem sanctuary, but in the hearts of sincere, exiled believers. And so it has often been in the later Christian experience; spirituality and the most active presence of God has often been experienced in exile from the established, visible sanctuaries.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yahweh’s voice makes the deer calve, and strips the forests bare. In His temple everything says, Glory!<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As explained on :8, David had learned that the glory and presence of God was as real in the wilderness and forests as in the Jerusalem sanctuary. And so in this proposed dedication of the temple, he makes the point that the same voice of God which would thunder "Glory!" in the temple was just as present and active in the desert.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yahweh sat enthroned at the flood; truly, Yahweh sits as King forever-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The reference would be to the mercy seat as a kind of throne for God. As He had judged the earth at the time of the flood, so He would as it were reign in judgment when the ark was permanently settled in the new temple; that was David's idea. Note how David the king repeatedly calls God his "king". His exaltation didn't lead him to pride, as he was always under the deep impression that he was not the ultimate king (<a href='B:230 5:2'>Psa 5:2</a>; <a href='B:230 10:16'>Psa 10:16</a>; <a href='B:230 29:10'>Psa 29:10</a>; <a href='B:230 44:4'>Psa 44:4</a>; <a href='B:230 47:6'>Psa 47:6</a>).</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yahweh will give strength to His people, Yahweh will bless His people with peace. A Psalm. A Song for the Dedication of the Temple- </p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>See on :1. The allusion is to the priestly blessing of <a href='B:40 6:24'>Num 6:24</a>. This was to be given from the new temple which David envisioned.</p><h2></h2>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>By David-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The primary context may have been David's relief at having been healed and forgiven after his sin with Bathsheba.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I will extol You, Yahweh, for You have raised me up, and have not made my enemies to rejoice over me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The political threats to David immediately after his sin with Bathsheba aren't detailed in the historical narratives, but the Psalms often refer to them. However, David suffered so much from Bathsheba's grandfather Ahithophel, his own son Absalom and others. So his rejoicing as if all consequences of the sin were somehow annulled is in a sense incorrect.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yahweh my God, I cried to You, and You have healed me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Whilst this applies to David's healing of his mortal sickness after the sin with Bathsheba, the same word for "healed" is used of Hezekiah's healing (<a href='B:120 20:8'>2Ki 20:8</a>). So many of the Psalms were clearly rewritten with reference to Hezekiah.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yahweh, You have brought up my soul from Sheol. You have kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Brought up" is the language of resurrection. The language on one hand suggests a kind of living death; and yet there is also the clear hint at resurrection, because finally it was only true of the Lord Jesus.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Sing praise to Yahweh, You saints of His, give thanks to His holy name-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'> David wanted the whole world and brotherhood of his time to praise God- because of the grace shown to him. This was the great positive outcome of David's awful sins:&nbsp;</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For His anger is but for a moment; His grace is for all our lifetime. Weeping may stay for the night, but joy comes in the morning-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>There is no indication in the historical records that God's anger was visibly poured out upon David because of his sin. But the Psalms so often imply thIsa. The silence of the historical record about his mortal sickness at the time is perhaps because the record reflects the forgiveness and blessing given at the time. God's anger with the exiles is likewise likened to being only for a relatively short moment; a night of weeping to be followed by an eternal dawn. The restoration prophets are full of these images.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As for me, I said in my prosperity, I shall never be moved-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>What David learnt from the Bathsheba failure is in essence what we all have to learn. Psalms 26 was surely written before he sinned with her. He speaks of how he had walked in integrity before God “without wavering” (<a href='B:230 26:1'>Psa 26:1</a> RV), and how his foot did not slip (<a href='B:230 26:12'>Psa 26:12</a>). What else does this evidently pre-Bathsheba Psalm indicate about David’s attitude, and what changed after Bathsheba? He speaks in <a href='B:230 26:5'>Psa 26:5</a> of how he refuses to sit at table with sinners. Yet the Lord rejoiced to do just thIsa. He contrasts his righteousness with the sinfulness of the wicked (<a href='B:230 26:10-11'>Psa 26:10-11</a>)- a far cry from Paul’s insistence in Romans that we have sinned just as much as the world has, in the sense that we desperately need salvation by grace. When David asks for forgiveness in <a href='B:230 26:11'>Psa 26:11</a> (“redeem me, and be merciful unto me”), he therefore was apparently asking for mercy in an almost technical way, perhaps seeing the only mercy he required as a resurrection from the dead. &nbsp;All these attitudes changed radically after his Bathsheba experience. He could look back and reflect how “As for me, I said in my prosperity, I shall never be moved” (<a href='B:230 30:6'>Psa 30:6</a>), perhaps looking back to <a href='B:230 26:10'>Psa 26:10</a>, where he had felt confident his foot had never been moved. And he speaks of how he only stands strong because of God’s gracious favour (<a href='B:230 30:7'>Psa 30:7</a>). God works through sin and failure- to bring us to know His grace. We follow the same learning curve as David, if we are truly God’s man or woman. The soliloquy of David is commented upon in <a href='B:520 4:6'>Rom 4:6</a>: “David pronounceth blessing upon the man [i:e. any man, each of us] unto whom God reckoneth righteousness</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>” (RV). <a href='B:520 4:9'>Rom 4:9</a> RV likewise speaks of David in the soliloquy of Psalms 32 pronouncing blessing upon us.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>It has been rightly noted that David's remaining at Jerusalem " at the time when kings go forth to battle" (11:1) is the classic example of the devil finding work for idle hands. It was the set up for David's sin with Bathsheba. That he was lying down on his bed in the late afternoon rather than working would exemplify the same thing. He appears to recognize his attitude problem in <a href='B:230 30:6'>Psa 30:6</a>: " In my prosperity I said, I shall never be (spiritually) moved" . In the lead up to the sin, God had given him victory after victory- leading him to think that he must therefore be spiritually OK because of his many physical blessings (<a href='B:130 18:6'>1Ch 18:6</a> RV). His conscience had been blunted. David may have cleverly alluded to this when he comments that the ark was abiding in a tent, and therefore he would not go down to his house (<a href='B:100 11:11'>2Sa 11:11</a>). The tension between a tent and a house is surely intended to take David back to his words in <a href='B:100 7:2'>2Sa 7:2</a>, where he laments as unacceptable the fact that he lives in a house but the ark is in a tent. And David was ‘tarrying’, living in a settled way, in a house in Jerusalem now:&nbsp;</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The fact that he is condemned for having "despised the commandment of the Lord" (<a href='B:100 12:9'>2Sa 12:9</a>) in David's sin with Bathsheba indicates that He knew all along what God's will really was. The fact that the flesh took over does not in any way mitigate his responsibility in thIsa. This is a direct quote from the Law's definition of the sin of presumption: "The soul that doeth ought presumptuously::. because he hath despised the word of the Lord::. that soul shall utterly be cut off" (<a href='B:40 15:30-31'>Num 15:30-31</a>). Knowing David’s emotional nature and also the fact that he did not completely turn away from God afterwards, we would have expected a quicker repentance if it had been a passing sin of passion. It would therefore seem reasonable to assume that the sin was of presumption rather than passion. In his prosperity he had said “I shall never be moved” and he was determined that he couldn’t be (<a href='B:230 30:6'>Psa 30:6</a>). Hearing those words from Nathan must have struck real fear into David- he was being incriminated for the supreme sin of presumption, for which there was no provision of sacrifice or repentance.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David in his earlier Psalms exalts and boasts to God that his feet have not slipped, indeed he was overly confident that his feet would never slip / "be moved" (<a href='B:230 17:5'>Psa 17:5</a>; <a href='B:230 21:7'>Psa 21:7</a>; <a href='B:230 55:22'>Psa 55:22</a>; <a href='B:230 62:2'>Psa 62:2</a>; <a href='B:230 62:6'>Psa 62:6</a>; <a href='B:230 125:1'>Psa 125:1</a>). His more mature reflection is that he had wrongly said "I shall never slip [AV "be moved"]" (<a href='B:230 30:6'>Psa 30:6</a>), and his feet had indeed slipped, not least over the Bathsheba incident (<a href='B:230 38:16'>Psa 38:16</a>; <a href='B:230 94:18'>Psa 94:18</a>). Solomon didn't learn this lesson, for he likewise assumed that the righteous would never be moved / slip (<a href='B:240 10:30'>Pro 10:30</a>), although he appears to accept that even a righteous man like his father had indeed slipped (<a href='B:240 25:26'>Pro 25:26</a>). And Solomon himself did so, not learning the lesson from his father's mistaken assumption that the righteous can never slip.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>You, Yahweh, when You favoured me, made my mountain stand strong; but when You hid Your face, I was troubled-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David's mountain presumably refers to his kingdom. The troubles that came to David's kingdom as a result of his sin with Bathsheba never really left him; the kingdom was never really "strong" as it had been before. It was full of division and infighting.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I cried to You, Yahweh; to Yahweh I made supplication-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Supplication" is the same word translated "have mercy" in :10, and is the term used in David's plea for forgiveness in <a href='B:230 51:1'>Psa 51:1</a>. The cry for mercy suggests the moral guilt of the sin with Bathsheba, which had its consequence in David's mortal sickness with which it seems he was stricken soon afterwards (as in <a href='B:230 41:4'>Psa 41:4</a>).</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>What profit is there in my destruction, if I go down to the pit? Shall the dust praise You? Shall it declare Your truth?<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>These are very much the thoughts of Hezekiah when terminally ill. But David clearly had these same thoughts. There is the clear implication that there is no conscious survival of death. After death there is no praise of God; and that points up the critical importance to use life to praise Him. The implication of David's argument, even if it could appear somewhat manipulative, is that God ought to keep him alive as he can then praise God. But God isn't interested in receiving praise for its own sake; otherwise there would be no death in this life for the righteous. So there seems some error of logic in the argument, although it is true so far as it goes. "Declare" is the word used for David's declaration of praise after his forgiveness concerning Bathsheba (<a href='B:230 51:15'>Psa 51:15</a>). The "truth" which David declared after his forgiveness (<a href='B:230 30:9'>Psa 30:9</a>) was the ultimate truth, of God's forgiveness of him by grace; a 'declaring' of his sin (<a href='B:230 38:18'>Psa 38:18</a> s:w:) and God's forgiveness.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Hear, Yahweh, and have mercy on me. Yahweh, be my helper-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Earlier David had sought Yahweh's help (s:w:) on the basis that he had been obedient to God's word (<a href='B:230 119:173'>Psa 119:173</a> s:w:), and was innocent (<a href='B:230 119:86'>Psa 119:86</a> s:w:). But the sin with Bathsheba led David to beg for God to be his helper purely on the basis of grace (<a href='B:230 30:10'>Psa 30:10</a> s:w:). He had asked for God's words to be his "helper" (<a href='B:230 119:175'>Psa 119:175</a>), but now he quits his academic study and begs directly for God Himself to be his "helper".</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>You have turned my mourning into dancing for me. You have removed my sackcloth, and clothed me with gladness-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David removed his sackcloth when his child died (<a href='B:100 12:20-22'>2Sa 12:20-22</a>). It was perhaps at this point that he realized that he had been truly forgiven; hence the strange and much observed paradox of David's relative rejoicing at a time when he was supposed to be mourning for his child's death.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>To the end that my heart may sing praise to You, and not be silent. Yahweh my God, I will give thanks to You forever!- David often uses the idea of ‘confession’, in the double Hebrew sense of both confessing sin and yet also confessing the knowledge of God to others (e:g. Psa. 30:12 AV cp. NEB). Imagine his attitude in preaching! There must have been a true humility in his style of speaking, his body language and in his message- coupled with an earnestness and intensity few have since matched.</p><h2></h2>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>In You, Yahweh, I take refuge-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The idea is that God was David's city of refuge. These cities were for those who needed to flee when being chased by the avenger of blood (<a href='B:40 35:26'>Num 35:26</a>). The imagery is very appropriate to David when fleeing from Saul and Absalom. David's constant meditation upon God's law would have included the sections about the cities of refuge; he realized that actually no such city was available for him, but the spirit of the law led him to reflect that Yahweh was his refuge, wherever he was. David tends to open wilderness Psalms with this reflection, just as we may tend to begin prayers with the same opening phrase and thoughts (<a href='B:230 7:1'>Psa 7:1</a>; <a href='B:230 11:1'>Psa 11:1</a>; <a href='B:230 16:1'>Psa 16:1</a>; <a href='B:230 31:1'>Psa 31:1</a>; <a href='B:230 57:1'>Psa 57:1</a>; <a href='B:230 71:1'>Psa 71:1</a>).</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Let me never be disappointed. Deliver me in Your righteousness-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Typical of men of his time, David seems to fear shame [s:w. "disappointed"] more than death itself. Defeat meant shame, and he desperately begged not to be shamed. Perhaps it was the function of his failure with Bathsheba to help him redefine the motives for his trust in God.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Bow down Your ear to me, deliver me quickly-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The way men like Abraham and Moses reasoned with God and changed His stated purpose indicates the condescension of God to us. The way He hears and responds to human prayer is humility itself. David realized this: " Bow down thine ear to me" he prayed, recognizing that it was through His humility that God hears human prayer (<a href='B:230 31:2'>Psa 31:2</a>).</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Be to me a strong rock, a house of defence to save me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Exiled from the stronghold of Zion, David looked instead to God, whose 'Zion' he now perceived to be wherever he was.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For You are my rock and my fortress-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>or the allusion to Zion, see on :2.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Therefore for Your name’s sake lead me and guide me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The Hebrew for "lead" is only used elsewhere in <a href='B:230 23:2'>Psa 23:2</a> in the context of God leading David as he fled Jerusalem during Absalom's rebellion. Perhaps he had in view how God lead (s:w:) Israel through the desert (<a href='B:20 15:13'>Exo 15:13</a>). The restoration application is to God's promise to "lead" (s:w:) the exiles on the desert journey back to Zion (<a href='B:290 40:11'>Isa 40:11</a>; <a href='B:290 49:10'>Isa 49:10</a>).</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Pluck me out of the net that they have laid secretly for me, for You are my stronghold-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Although David fled the stronghold of Zion during Absalom's rebellion (see on :3), he felt God was still his stronghold, and he needed no human strength. The net secretly laid clearly alludes to Absalom's deceitful plans. The net secretly laid would refer to Absalom's lengthy planning of his rebellion.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Into Your hand I commend my spirit. You have redeemed me, Yahweh, God of truth-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>These words were quoted by the Lord on the cross as His very last words (<a href='B:490 23:46'>Luk 23:46</a>); and we wonder whether "You have redeemed me" were His first words upon resurrection. The context is Absalom's rebellion (:3,4), and again we see how the Psalms most appropriate to the crucifixion are those written about David's experience of the consequence of his sins. The Lord on the cross suffered the consequence of sin whilst personally innocent.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>If we place the seven last sayings of Christ chronologically, we find that the number of words Christ uttered runs 12-9-4-3-1-1-8. This indicates that He found speaking increasingly difficult on the cross. Now He breathes His last using these words, literally giving His Spirit to God. The Greek translated "commend" means literally to place beside, to lay down beside. The Lord Jesus had a sense that His character would not be forgotten by the Father, it would take it's place beside the Father as it were, as He later would physically. This is not, of course, to give any support to the notion of disembodied spirits. Existence can only be in an animate, bodily sense. Yet the word "commend" in the Greek does suggest that Christ felt that the place He would soon take beside the Father was due to the fact that His spirit / mind had found acceptance with Him first. The Father's hands no doubt is an idiom for His care, His preservation (cp. <a href='B:470 4:6'>Mat 4:6</a>). Christ was taking comfort in the fact that His character, those endless minutes of spiritual effort, of struggle to develop and preserve a spiritual mind, would surely not be forgotten, it would be preserved in the Father's hands.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>He could have avoided His final death; but He chose not to, and in this sense He willingly gave His life rather than had it taken from Him. The death of human beings can be seen as a result of physical processes over which they have no control. They are killed, often against their will, or disease takes hold of them and eventually forces them to a point where they breathe their last. There is never a conscious giving up of the last breath as an act of the will. Death either occurs in a state of semi-consciousness or unexpectedly, in a moment. We usually, in the final analysis, cling to life at all costs, throwing our feeble best into the fight we have no chance to win. Truly did Dylan Thomas observe that men do not "go gentle into that good night" but "‘rage, rage against the dying of the light". The death of the Lord Jesus Christ was altogether different- and the death of the thieves next to Him would have highlighted thIsa. It is so often emphasized that He gave His life for us: "Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures" in itself suggests that the death of Christ was an act of the will. He gave His flesh for us (<a href='B:500 6:51'>Joh 6:51</a>).</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The Lord was at great pains to emphasize this aspect of His death, saying the same thing time and again: " I lay down my life for the sheep:::therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life:::no man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself:::this commandment have I received of my Father" (<a href='B:500 10:15-18'>Joh 10:15-18</a>). The death of Christ was therefore a conscious act of giving, it was not simply a result of being murdered by the Jews or Roman soldiers. No man took Christ's life from Him, He laid it down of Himself, i:e. of His own will. It is therefore apparent that Christ's death was not solely a physical result of being impaled on the stake. The fact He died abnormally quickly is proof enough of thIsa. And it explains why the centurion when he saw how the Lord so cried out was by this fact persuaded that He was the Son of God (<a href='B:480 15:39'>Mar 15:39</a>). That last outbreathing, that death as an act of the will, was something phenomenal. We are therefore driven to the conclusion that Christ was in a position to give His life at a certain point in time chosen by Himself. "He poured out his soul unto death" (<a href='B:290 53:12'>Isa 53:12</a>) suggests that the actual point of His death was a result of mental activity within the mind of the Lord Jesus. He was the servant who "makes himself an offering for sin" (<a href='B:290 53:10'>Isa 53:10</a>).</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The Greek para-tithemi means literally to place or lay down beside. Tithemi is the same word translated "lay down" when we read of Christ laying down His life for us. It is the word used to describe the palsied man being laid down at the feet of Jesus (<a href='B:490 5:18'>Luk 5:18</a>), or the laying of a foundation stone (<a href='B:530 3:11'>1Co 3:11</a>). It is also translated to bow down. The point at which Christ laid down His life, bowing down before the Father, was therefore when He commended His spirit to the Father. When Christ "yielded up the spirit" (<a href='B:470 27:50'>Mat 27:50</a>), He was commending His spirit to God, laying down His life for us. The Greek for "yielded up" is para-didomi, to yield or give beside, and is evidently related in meaning to para-tithemi, to commend, to lay down beside.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>So the idea of Christ giving Himself for us therefore refers to that final moment of giving up, yielding, laying down His breath for us. Paul was evidently moved by this; he marvelled at how Christ "gave himself for me" (<a href='B:550 2:20'>Gal 2:20</a>), using the same word as in <a href='B:500 19:30'>Joh 19:30</a> concerning him giving up His spirit. And we can enter into that sense or marvel and wonder. Paul again alludes to this in <a href='B:560 5:2'>Eph 5:2</a>: "Walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour". And therefore, Paul goes on, fornication, covetousness, foolish talking etc. should not even be named amongst us, "but rather giving of thanks" (<a href='B:560 5:3-4'>Eph 5:3-4</a>).</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>That wondrous moment when Christ reached such self-control as to give His life for us, to breathe out His last breath for us as an act of the will, that moment was evidently deep within the mind of Paul. Because of it we should find ample inspiration to "walk in love" towards each other, to be so full of praise for this that we have no time to even speak about the sins to which are earthly nature is so prone. These are high ideals indeed, yet in Paul (another sin-stricken human) they began to be realized. They really can be realized in our lives, we truly can begin to appreciate the intensity of that yielding up, that laying down of the life spirit of our Lord Jesus- and therefore and thereby we will find the inspiration to respond in a life of true love for each other. </p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>It seems likely that Peter was at the cross, and therefore his letters are packed with allusions to it. What he saw there had a lifelong impact upon him. He makes at least two allusions to the words of Christ on the cross, and bids us enter into the spirit of it. "Hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his stePsa::. who::. when he suffered, threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously" (<a href='B:670 2:21-23'>1Pe 2:21-23</a>). This is the same word as used about Christ commending His spirit to God in that final agony. We really are bidden enter into His example and follow Him. Christ overcame the temptation to react wrongly to His sufferings by instead committing Himself to God. This idea of laying Himself down for us was what enabled Him not to get bitter. The antidote to our own bitterness is likewise to enter into this spirit of laying down our lives. </p>&nbsp;<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The hands of God are also connected with the Angels, the means by which God performs His actions. Moses' hands being upheld by the hands of others can be seen as a type of the Lord Jesus being sustained by Angelic hands on the cross, connecting with the Messianic prophecy of <a href='B:10 49:24'>Gen 49:24</a> concerning the hands of Messiah being strengthened for His mediation by the hands of God. Throughout Scripture, God's hands are associated with His creative work in the natural creation (e:g. <a href='B:230 8:6'>Psa 8:6</a>; <a href='B:230 95:5'>Psa 95:5</a>; <a href='B:650 1:10'>Heb 1:10</a>)- work which was and is performed through the Angels.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I hate those who regard lying vanities, but I trust in Yahweh-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This would be another hint in the Psalms that David's enemies, be they Saul or Absalom, were involved in idolatry; whereas David trusted Yahweh alone. See on :14.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Throughout David’s Psalms in Psalms 1-72, he repeatedly asks for torture upon the sinners and blessing upon himself as the righteous. He speaks of how sinners should be “contemned” in the eyes of the righteous (<a href='B:230 15:4'>Psa 15:4</a>), how he hates them, how the gatherings of sinners should be “hated” and sinners should not be fellowshipped (<a href='B:230 26:4-6'>Psa 26:4-6</a>; <a href='B:230 31:6'>Psa 31:6</a>) and how God’s uprightness is shown to the upright and His judgment to the judgmental (<a href='B:230 18:25-26'>Psa 18:25-26</a>; <a href='B:230 33:22'>Psa 33:22</a>). He invites God’s judgment upon himself and others according to their and his works (<a href='B:230 28:4'>Psa 28:4</a>):&nbsp; Frequently he alludes to Saul as “the violent man”- even though David committed his share of violence- and asks judgment upon him (<a href='B:230 18:48'>Psa 18:48</a>). Only those with clean hands and pure heart like himself could have fellowship with God (<a href='B:230 24:3-4'>Psa 24:3-4</a>). Psalms 37 doesn’t indicate any desire to convert the sinners but rather an expectation of their judgment and destruction. God and David laugh at the wicked because their day is coming (<a href='B:230 37:13'>Psa 37:13</a>). There’s no spirit of grace here at all- perhaps that’s why <a href='B:450 12:10'>Zec 12:10</a> specifically says that the spirit of grace will have to be poured out upon the house of David in the last days. This attitude changed after the sin with Bathsheba, but still something of the old self righteousness and judgmental attitudes are to be found in David in Psalms written after that.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I will be glad and rejoice in Your grace, for You have seen my affliction. You have known my soul in adversities-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Adversities" is the word used of Jacob and Joseph when in exile situations apparently lacking any human hope of restoration (<a href='B:10 35:3'>Gen 35:3</a>; <a href='B:10 42:21'>Gen 42:21</a>). The comfort that God sees and knows leads David to joy in an otherwise joyless situation.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>You have not shut me up into the hand of the enemy, You have set my feet in a large place-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This language of constriction, being shut up, was perhaps based upon David's living in caves at the time of his exile from Saul; and he reuses those Psalms when under persecution from Absalom and others. It continues the allusion to Joseph in the pit noted on :7. He saw those constricted places as "a large place", and here we have a timeless encouragement for all who find themselves constricted in whatever way.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Have mercy on me, Yahweh, for I am in distress. My eye, my soul, and my body waste away with grief-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Grief" is the word used for the wrath of God (<a href='B:230 85:4'>Psa 85:4</a>), but could also refer to the anger of others- perhaps the family of Bathsheba, or the followers of Saul, was originally in view. A sense of fading vision would be appropriate to both his physical and emotional state. In the Bathsheba context it would seem that during his illness, there arose "adversaries" against him. But the Psalm may have originated whilst under persecution by Saul.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For my life is spent with sorrow, my years with sighing. My strength fails because of my sin, my bones are wasted away-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'> What is in places a wilderness Psalm was clearly reused by David during his illness after the sin with Bathsheba. In our lives too, circumstances repeat under God's good hand, as He repeats the lessons and we learn them through that repetition. Despite his undoubted physique stamina, David was a broken man, even quite early in his life, prone to fits of introspection; dramatic mood-swings (cp. <a href='B:90 24:14'>1Sa 24:14</a> with 25:6,22,34;), sometimes appearing a real 'softie' but hard as nails at others (consider <a href='B:230 75:10'>Psa 75:10</a> and the whole of Psalms 101); easily getting carried away: be it with excessive emotional enthusiasm for bringing the ark back, in his harsh response to Hanun humbling his servants, his over-hasty and emotional decision to let Amnon go to Absalom's feast when it was obvious what might well transpire, his anger "flaring up" because of incompetency (<a href='B:100 11:20'>2Sa 11:20</a> NIV),&nbsp; or in his ridiculous softness for Absalom. He had a heart cruelly torn so many ways. All these traits are amply reflected in the Psalms: <a href='B:230 6:7'>Psa 6:7</a>; <a href='B:230 31:10'>Psa 31:10</a>; <a href='B:230 42:3'>Psa 42:3</a>; <a href='B:230 42:6'>Psa 42:6</a>; <a href='B:230 38:8'>Psa 38:8</a>; <a href='B:230 55:4'>Psa 55:4</a>; <a href='B:230 56:8'>Psa 56:8</a>; <a href='B:230 69:3'>Psa 69:3</a>; <a href='B:230 69:29'>Psa 69:29</a>; <a href='B:230 88:3'>Psa 88:3</a>; <a href='B:230 88:9'>Psa 88:9</a>; <a href='B:230 94:19'>Psa 94:19</a> (what introspection!); 102:4; 116:3; 143:4.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Because of all my adversaries I have become utterly contemptible to my neighbours, a fear to my acquaintances. Those who saw me on the street fled from me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David's family appear to have later disowned him during Saul’s persecution (<a href='B:230 31:11'>Psa 31:11</a>), fleeing from him, as the Lord’s friends also did (<a href='B:230 31:11'>Psa 31:11</a> = <a href='B:470 26:56'>Mat 26:56</a>). Here we have another allusion to Job. It is twice stressed that David's brothers "followed Saul" (<a href='B:90 17:13-14'>1Sa 17:13-14</a>); is it possible to argue back from this that Christ's brothers were strong Judaists?&nbsp; The "neighbours" could also here refer to the neighbouring nations around Judah. The recoiling from David "on the street" could refer to some visible skin disease, perhaps leprosy.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I am forgotten from their hearts like a dead man; I am like broken pottery-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>According to how Jeremiah later uses the metaphor of pottery, this would imply that David felt as if he were the vessel which God had broken. There is continually the sense that his physical condition was a judgment for his immorality.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For I have heard the slander of many, terror on every side, while they conspire together against me, they plot to take away my life-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>So many of the Psalms contain references to Saul's smear campaign against David (<a href='B:230 27:12'>Psa 27:12</a>; <a href='B:230 31:13'>Psa 31:13</a>; <a href='B:230 109:23'>Psa 109:23</a> cp. <a href='B:90 26:19'>1Sa 26:19</a>). This frequency of reference in itself indicates the weight with which this tragedy rested upon David's mind:&nbsp;And yet the pain of slander&nbsp;continued at the time of his sin with Bathsheba, and later during Absalom's rebellion. The plot to take away David's life could specifically refer to Ahithophel's advice to Absalom.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>But I trust in You, Yahweh. I said, You are my God-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'> The stress may be upon "You", given the note on :6 that David's enemies, be they Saul or Absalom, were involved in idolatry; whereas David trusted Yahweh alone:&nbsp;</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>My times are in Your hand-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This could be an admission that the time of his death was in God's hand, but he committed his life into God's hands (:5). LXX "My lots are in thy hands" could mean that he rejected the idea of drawing lots in order to know where to run or how to act; or that if he did, he recognized that God's hands would control the outcome.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Redeem me from the hand of my enemies, and from those who persecute me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Redeem / deliver me from the hand::." is again a quotation from Jacob's words when he found his relative Esau barring his path back home (<a href='B:10 32:11'>Gen 32:11</a>; <a href='B:10 32:30'>Gen 32:30</a>). And the word is used of David's desire for deliverance from Saul (<a href='B:90 26:24'>1Sa 26:24</a>); and yet this was a redemption unappreciated by him as it ought to have been (<a href='B:100 12:7'>2Sa 12:7</a>). Finally David recognized that this prayer was answered (<a href='B:100 22:18'>2Sa 22:18</a>; <a href='B:100 22:49'>2Sa 22:49</a>). As David had earlier prayed for redemption / deliverance from Saul and his enemies (<a href='B:230 31:15'>Psa 31:15</a>; <a href='B:230 59:1'>Psa 59:1</a>; <a href='B:230 144:7'>Psa 144:7</a>), he would later pray for redemption / deliverance from his sins (<a href='B:230 39:8'>Psa 39:8</a>; <a href='B:230 79:9'>Psa 79:9</a>).</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Make Your face to shine on Your servant; save me in Your grace-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>At this time David rejoiced in God's grace (:7), and yet also felt God's face was not shining upon him. We can still rejoice in Divine grace even if we don't have a buzz of emotional awareness that God is shining upon us.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Let me not be disappointed, Yahweh, for I have called on You-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Disappointed" is 'shamed'. It is likely that the Lord was crucified naked, thereby sharing the shame of Adam's nakedness. The shame of the cross is stressed (<a href='B:650 11:26'>Heb 11:26</a>; <a href='B:650 12:2'>Heb 12:2</a>; <a href='B:230 31:17'>Psa 31:17</a>; <a href='B:230 69:6-7'>Psa 69:6-7</a>; <a href='B:230 69:12'>Psa 69:12</a>; <a href='B:230 69:19-20'>Psa 69:19-20</a>). And we are to share those sufferings. There must, therefore, be an open standing up for what we believe in the eyes of a hostile world. Preaching, in this sense, is for all of us. And if we dodge this, we put the Son of God to a naked shame; we re-crucify Him naked, we shame Him again (<a href='B:650 6:6'>Heb 6:6</a>). He was crucified naked, and the sun went in for three hours. He must have been cold, very cold (<a href='B:500 18:18'>Joh 18:18</a>). Artemidorus Daldianus (Oneirokritika 2:53) confirms that the Romans usually crucified victims naked. Melito of Sardis, writing in the 2nd century, writes of “his body naked and not even deemed worthy of a clothing that it might not be seen. Therefore the heavenly lights turned away and the day darkened in order that he might be hidden who was denuded upon the cross" (On the Pasch 97). The earliest portrayals of the crucified Jesus, on carved gems, feature Him naked.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Let the wicked be disappointed, may they be silent in Sheol-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Clearly David understands the punishment of the wicked to be silence in the grave, and not eternal torment.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Let the lying lips be mute, which speak against the righteous insolently, with pride and contempt-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This implies David was a victim of slander far more than the historical records suggest. The silencing of the lying lips may connect with the wish that the wicked "be silent" in the grave. This wishing of death upon slanderers seems rather extreme and out of step with the later spirit of the Lord Jesus.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Oh how great is Your goodness, which You have laid up for those who fear You, which You have worked for those who take refuge in You, before the sons of men!<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David's thoughts in :18,19 have been upon the final future condemnation of the wicked. Therefore the goodness "laid up" for the righteous would refer to the future reward of the Kingdom of God. The nature of our eternal existence will be unique to each of us, and God is developing or 'working' it right now through our experience of life. We note that David's trust in Yahweh was unashamed and public, "before the sons of men".</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>In the shelter of Your presence You will hide them from the plotting of man. You will keep them secretly in a dwelling away from the strife of tongues-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The reference may be to the plotting of Absalom and his party to overthrow David, which went on many years before Absalom's putsch. The pain of words is difficult to deal with; here David imagines himself as living in a Divinely provided pavilion which was somehow soundproofed against "the strife of tongues". And again David sees himself as dwelling in the shadow of the cherubic wings over the mercy seat, where the shekinah presence of Yahweh was to be seen. And he felt that wherever he was.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Praise be to Yahweh, for He has shown me His marvellous grace in a fortified city-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This could refer to David’s escape from Keilah, or how he got out of Gath when he fled there and the Philistines turned against him (<a href='B:90 21:10-14'>1Sa 21:10-14</a>). Or maybe this refers to how safe felt in his fortified city of Ziklag.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As for me, I said in my haste, I am cut off from before Your eyes. Nevertheless You heard the voice of my petitions when I cried to You-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>If "eyes" refer to Angels, this could be a prophecy of the Lord Jesus’ fear of losing the Angelic presence whilst He was on the cross- hence <a href='B:470 27:46'>Mat 27:46</a>.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Oh love Yahweh, all you His saints! Yahweh preserves the faithful, and fully recompenses him who behaves arrogantly-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David persistently sees the problem of his enemies, be they Saul or Absalom, as pride. And yet when the 'full recompense' of death came upon those men, David genuinely mourned and was heart broken. Sometimes we get the impression that the Psalms, although inspired, are very much a flow of consciousness statement.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Be strong, and let your heart take courage, all you who hope in Yahweh- </p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This is another teaching to the effect that God will strengthen human hearts. The Greek and Hebrew words translated&nbsp; 'spirit' don't only mean 'power'. They frequently refer to the mind / heart. We read of God giving men a new heart, a new spirit; of Him working on men's hearts to make them do His will. He gives them a new spirit. This doesn't mean that they of their own volition have the power of the Holy Spirit gifts, as, e:g:, some in the early church did. God will strengthen the heart / spirit of those who try to be strong (<a href='B:230 27:14'>Psa 27:14</a>; <a href='B:230 31:24'>Psa 31:24</a>). He can even, somehow, withhold men from sinning (<a href='B:10 20:6'>Gen 20:6</a>), and keep us from falling (<a href='B:720 1:24'>Jud 1:24</a>). We should therefore have no essential objection to the idea of the Lord granting us His Spirit, in the sense of His thinking, His heart / mind.</p><h2></h2>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>By David. A contemplative Psalm-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Or maschil. Being so certain of having received God's mercy, and therefore knowing the joy of living in good conscience with God, led David to preach to those around him. "Then will I teach transgressors&nbsp; thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee" (<a href='B:230 51:13'>Psa 51:13</a>). Note too that Psalms 32 is a&nbsp; 'Maschil' psalm- 'for instruction'. If we have really experienced the mercy of God, we will preach to others from our personal experience. 'Preaching' will not be something which we will have to will ourselves to do, nor will it be just a compartment of our lives. Like David, our very existence, the very spirit of our lives, will be an open proclamation of what God's mercy has achieved in us:&nbsp;Morally disgraced in the eyes of all Israel and even the surrounding nations, not to mention his own family, David didn't have a leg to stand on when it came to telling other people how to live their lives. A lesser man than David would have resigned all connection with any kind of preaching. But throughout the Bathsheba psalms there is constant reference to David's desire to go and share the grace of God which he had experienced with others (Psalms 32 title; <a href='B:230 51:13'>Psa 51:13</a>). He titles them ‘maschil’- for instruction / teaching. “Have mercy upon me, O Lord::. that I may shew forth all thy praise in the gates” (<a href='B:230 9:13-14'>Psa 9:13-14</a>). </p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Blessed is he whose iniquity is forgiven, whose sin is covered-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven" (<a href='B:230 32:1'>Psa 32:1</a>), David wrote, after experiencing God's mercy in the matter of Bathsheba. But Paul sees this verse as David describing "the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works" (<a href='B:520 4:6'>Rom 4:6</a>). Each of us are in need of a like justification; therefore we find ourselves in David's position. The Spirit changes <a href='B:230 32:1'>Psa 32:1</a> ("Blessed is he&nbsp;whose transgression is forgiven") to "Blessed are they" (<a href='B:520 4:7'>Rom 4:7</a>) to make the same point.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Paul quotes David’s rejoicing in the righteousness imputed to him when he had sinned and had no works left to do- and changes the pronoun from “he” to “they” (<a href='B:520 4:6-8'>Rom 4:6-8</a>). David’s personal experience became typical of that of each of us. It was through the experience of that wretched and hopeless position that David and all believers come to know the true ‘blessedness’ of imputed righteousness and sin forgiven by grace.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>After his sin with Bathsheba, David was a desperate man. Sin is serious. He had to die, and he was shamed before all Israel. What he had done could not be undone, nor could it be forgiven through sacrifice. No amount of re-interpretation of the texts could get round it. Having been confronted by his desperation for nine months, he found a miraculous forgiveness. And he uttered a soliloquy: "Blessed is he (himself- David) whose transgression is forgiven" (<a href='B:230 32:1'>Psa 32:1</a>). <a href='B:520 4:6-7'>Rom 4:6-7</a> slightly changes this, with the preface that these words describe "the blessedness of [any] man" who finds true forgiveness: "Blessed are they whose iniquities [plural] are forgiven". The point is plain: David's desperation is that of every one redeemed in Christ.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Blessed is the man to whom Yahweh doesn’t impute iniquity-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Blessed is the man (e:g. David, or any sinner- David is our example) to whom Yahweh doesn't impute iniquity" is alluded to in <a href='B:540 5:19'>2Co 5:19</a>: "God was in Christ::. not imputing (the world's) trespasses unto them":&nbsp;</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>In whose spirit there is no deceit-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>In Christ there was no guile (<a href='B:670 2:22'>1Pe 2:22</a>), as there was not in David (or any other believer) after the justification of forgiveness (<a href='B:230 32:2'>Psa 32:2</a>). "Blessed is the man:::i n whose spirit is no guile"&nbsp; is picked up in <a href='B:730 14:5'>Rev 14:5</a>: "In their mouth was found no guile: for they are without fault before the throne of God". The picture of forgiven David in Psalms 32 is what we will each be like after acceptance "before the throne of God". Yet David's experience can also be ours here and now; in those moments of true contrition, we surely are experiencing salvation in prospect.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>In the same way as God did not impute iniquity to David, so David did not 'impute iniquity' to Shimei for cursing him, and did not carry out a rightful death sentence against that man (<a href='B:100 19:19'>2Sa 19:19</a>; <a href='B:100 19:21'>2Sa 19:21</a>). Note how Shimei uses the very same wording which David used in his repentance: "I have sinned" (<a href='B:100 19:20'>2Sa 19:20</a>). It makes a good homework to now look through the New Testament, looking for David allusions.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>When I kept silence, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This must refer to David's roaring to God in prayer (<a href='B:230 22:1'>Psa 22:1</a>) before&nbsp;David's repentance, whilst keeping silent about his sin. In the same context he laments: "I have roared by reason of the disquietness (bad conscience) of my heart" (<a href='B:230 38:8'>Psa 38:8</a>). His very separation from God made him pray to God the more, pleading for some form of spiritual healing. But without realistic confession of sin, such prayer was shouting out words into the darkness. David found that attempting to have a relationship with God in such bad conscience only adds to the pain:&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For day and night Your hand was heavy on me, my strength was dried as in the heat of summer. Selah-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David found his sins associated with Bathsheba "as an heavy burden::. too heavy for me::. I am (thereby) bowed down greatly" (<a href='B:230 32:4'>Psa 32:4</a>; <a href='B:230 32:6'>Psa 32:6</a>). Surely our Lord was thinking back to David when He invited all of us: "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden (with sins), and I will give you rest::. for my::. burden is light" (<a href='B:470 11:28-30'>Mat 11:28-30</a>).</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I acknowledged my sin to You, I didn’t hide my iniquity. I said, I will confess my transgressions to Yahweh, and You forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Solomon inserts parts of his father’s Bathsheba psalms in his prayers for how all Israel could be forgiven if they “confess thy name::. when thou afflictest them::. saying, We have sinned::. forgive thy people::. and all their transgressions wherein they have transgressed” (<a href='B:110 8:35'>1Ki 8:35</a>; <a href='B:110 8:47'>1Ki 8:47</a>; <a href='B:110 8:50'>1Ki 8:50</a> = <a href='B:230 32:5'>Psa 32:5</a> etc:). On the basis of David’s pattern, all God’s people can find forgiveness, if they make a like confession.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>It should be noted that the sin of adultery is not highlighted in Nathan's rebuke of David, but rather that David had "killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and hast taken his wife to be thy wife". This is twice emphasized in <a href='B:100 12:9-10'>2Sa 12:9-10</a>. This is not to say that the sin of weakness, of the moment, was irrelevant in God's sight. But the emphasis on how he had taken Bathsheba as his wife hints that this had been his long term intention, further suggesting that his sin with her was the end result of much prior meditation. This further illuminates the way in which David speaks of his sin with Bathsheba as if it comprised a whole multitude of other sins: " I acknowledged my sin (singular) unto thee::. I said, I will confess my transgressions (plural)" (<a href='B:230 32:5'>Psa 32:5</a> cp. 38:3,4,18). <a href='B:230 25:7'>Psa 25:7</a> also occurs in a&nbsp; Bathsheba context: "Remember not the sins of my youth::." ; as if facing up to his sin with Bathsheba made David face up to sins of years ago, possibly also in a sexual context.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Psalms 38 speaks of how the guilt of his sin weighed so heavily upon him (<a href='B:230 38:4'>Psa 38:4</a> NIV), whereas <a href='B:230 32:5'>Psa 32:5</a> describes how the guilt of sin has now been lifted from him- implying that he wrote Psalms 38 some time after the sin, but before repenting properly. The point is, he didn’t crash completely, he didn’t turn away from God in totality- he was still writing Psalms at the time!&nbsp;</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For this, let each one who is Godly pray to You-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The serious but repentant sinner is here called "Godly". This is alluded to in <a href='B:540 7:7-11'>2Co 7:7-11</a>. Paul wished to interpret the news from Titus as meaning that the Corinthians had repented of their deep immorality: "Ye were made sorry::. ye sorrowed to repentance:::ye were made sorry after a Godly manner (cp. "every one that is Godly::.", <a href='B:230 32:6'>Psa 32:6</a>)::. for Godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation::. ye sorrowed after a Godly sort, what carefulness it wrought in you, yea, what clearing of yourselves, yea, what indignation (cp. David's in <a href='B:100 12:5'>2Sa 12:5</a>)::. what zeal::. your mourning, your fervent mind" (AV). Allusion after allusion to David is being piled up here. The eight references to their "sorrow" in four verses is surely a signpost back to David's intense sorrow for his sin with Bathsheba: "My sin is ever before me (<a href='B:230 51:3'>Psa 51:3</a>)::. my sorrow is continually before me::. I will be sorry for my sin::. many sorrows shall be to the wicked" who, unlike David, refused to repent (<a href='B:230 38:17-18'>Psa 38:17-18</a>; <a href='B:230 32:10'>Psa 32:10</a>). This association between sin and sorrow is a common one (<a href='B:220 9:28'>Job 9:28</a>; <a href='B:610 6:10'>1Ti 6:10</a>; <a href='B:20 4:31'>Exo 4:31</a>; <a href='B:290 35:10'>Isa 35:10</a>. The last two references show how Israel's sorrowing in Egypt was on account of their sinfulness). We must pause to ask whether our consciousness of sin leads us to a like sorrowing, whether our repentance features a similar depth of remorse. It would appear that Paul is likening Corinth to David. They too were guilty of sexual "uncleanness and fornication and lasciviousness" (<a href='B:540 12:21'>2Co 12:21</a>). As David's repentance was made in a "day of salvation", so in <a href='B:540 6:2'>2Co 6:2</a> Paul told Corinth that they were in a similar position to him; they too had the chance of repentance. Those who had heeded this call earlier had experienced the zeal and clear conscience which David did on his repentance (<a href='B:540 7:9-11'>2Co 7:9-11</a>). In this case, Paul would be likening himself to Nathan the prophet. This zeal which was seen in both David and Corinth is a sure sign of clear conscience and a joyful openness with God. Again, we ask how much of our zeal is motivated by this, or is it just a continuation of a level of service which we set ourselves in more spiritual days, which we now struggle to maintain for appearances sake?</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>In a time when You may be found. Surely when the great waters overflow, they shall not reach to him-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This is alluded to in <a href='B:540 6:2'>2Co 6:2</a>: "In a time of acceptance I hearkened to you, and in a day of salvation did I succour you. Behold, now is the time of acceptance; behold, now is the day of salvation". This quotation is in support of the statement that we have received God's grace, charis, gift of the Spirit; but we are not to receive it in vain, but rather make use of it. The 'succouring' in view refers to just that. The same word is used in <a href='B:650 2:18'>Heb 2:18</a> of how the Lord Jesus gives us such help in time of temptation. Seeing that temptation is internal to the human mind, this help is surely psychological, within the heart- which is exactly what the gift of the Spirit is all about. Forgiveness is indeed in view, but beyond that- strength against falling into sin.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For every sinner, for whom David is our example, now is the time when God may be "found" in the sense of experiencing His forgiveness. God is love towards men, He is forgiveness. To experience this and respond back to it is therefore to find the knowledge of God. This "time when You (i:e. God's forgiveness, which is God) may be found" which David speaks of is that of <a href='B:540 6:2'>2Co 6:2</a>: "Now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation". Paul was speaking of how all sinners, baptized or not, need to realize this; we are all in David's position. Some complain that they did not experience a very great upsurge in finding and knowing God at the point of baptism. This may be due to an insufficient emphasis on the need for repentance and appreciating the seriousness of sin before baptism; and not being willing to make use of the Spirit gift which we are then given. We must not think that we know God because we believe a Statement of Faith and have been baptized. "Now is the accepted time", Paul wrote to the baptized Corinthians, to truly take on board the marvel of God's forgiveness, to know it and respond to it for ourselves, and thereby to come to a dynamic, two-way relationship with God.</p>&nbsp;<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As David "found" God through experiencing His forgiveness, so can " every one that is Godly" today. It is quite possible that "seek and you shall find" (<a href='B:470 7:7'>Mat 7:7</a>) was uttered by the Lord with his mind on <a href='B:230 32:6'>Psa 32:6</a> and David's experience. After all, we cannot expect this to be a blank cheque offer, that whatever we seek for we must receive. But if these words are an allusion to David's seeking and finding forgiveness in <a href='B:230 32:6'>Psa 32:6</a>, then the promise is more realistic. If we seek for forgiveness and a living relationship with God, then we have this unconditional promise that we will find thIsa. Yet in a sense, the time when we will ultimately find God will be at the judgment: we will "find mercy of the Lord in that day" (<a href='B:620 1:18'>2Ti 1:18</a>), so that "ye may be found of him in peace, without spot and blameless" (<a href='B:680 3:14'>2Pe 3:14</a>). We will find God, as He will find us, in that great moment of consummation; "for then shall (we) know (God), even as also (we) are known" by Him (<a href='B:530 13:12'>1Co 13:12</a>; ). Then we will "be found in him:::that I may (then) know him" (Php_3:9-10). Yet David says that after forgiveness, we can find and know God. It is as if whenever we sin, we in a sense face our judgment seat.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>You are my hiding place, You will preserve me from trouble, You will surround me with songs of deliverance. Selah-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"In the hidden part You shall make me to know wisdom" (<a href='B:230 51:6'>Psa 51:6</a>) David meditated, as he looked forward to his new life with God after receiving forgiveness. His very innermost being would then be able to learn more deeply of God's real wisdom. There is a connection between David knowing God in his "hidden part", and <a href='B:230 32:7'>Psa 32:7</a>: "You art my hiding place", or 'hidden part'. This shows that David felt that after his repentance, God Himself would live in David's 'hidden part', that part of his mind and thinking which no one else knows. Through knowing God, God would come and live in that part which truly knew God. The tabernacling of God in our 'hidden part' also requires us to come to know Him, as David did:&nbsp;</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David came to know the marvel of all thIsa. And David is our example. His response was to eagerly desire to spread the knowledge of God which he acquired through his experience of God's forgiveness. "I will instruct thee and teach thee" he exalts in <a href='B:230 32:8'>Psa 32:8</a>. He knew that as God would surround him with songs of deliverance on forgiveness, so "he (anyone) that trusteth in the Lord (as David did), mercy shall compass him about" (<a href='B:230 32:10'>Psa 32:10</a>). "Then will I teach transgressors thy ways" (<a href='B:230 51:13'>Psa 51:13</a>) is another example. Likewise, Peter (<a href='B:490 5:8-10'>Luk 5:8-10</a>), Isaiah (<a href='B:290 6:5-9'>Isa 6:5-9</a>) and Paul (<a href='B:560 3:8'>Eph 3:8</a>) all received preaching commissions straight after their experience of forgiveness. Our knowledge of God through receiving it should be a powerful stimulus to our personal witnessing. There is every reason why some of our witnessing should include personal testimony of what the Lord has done for us.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you shall go, I will counsel you with my eye on you-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>These could be God's words to David, assuring him that He would use this experience of sin and restoration to teach him and lead him further in the way to life. Or as noted on :1, seeing this is a Psalm for instructing others, these may be David's words, seeking to bring others to know the way he himself had trodden. "Counsel" is the word used of Ahithophel, David's counsellor who was Bathsheba's grandfather, who later betrayed him and turned against him (<a href='B:100 15:12'>2Sa 15:12</a>; <a href='B:100 16:23'>2Sa 16:23</a>). Perhaps David is reflecting that due to his experience of grace, he is now qualified to counsel others; and therefore Ahithophel, Israel's renowned counsellor, was thereby further offended. See on <a href='B:230 33:18'>Psa 33:18</a>.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Solomon taught his son obedience to him as a father, but not to God Himself. He tells him: “I have taught thee in the way of wisdom; I have led thee in right paths” (<a href='B:240 4:11'>Pro 4:11</a>), repeating the words of David in <a href='B:230 32:8'>Psa 32:8</a>: “I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go: I will guide thee with mine eye”. But those words in their context were wrung from a David desperately grateful for God’s forgiveness of his sin with Bathsheba. Solomon hadn’t gone through this contrition- he was a self-justified womanizer, and yet he used the same outward form of words as his father. &nbsp;Solomon was playing God by implying that his words carried the weight of God’s words.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Don’t be like the horse or like the mule which have no understanding, who are controlled by bit and bridle, or else they will not come near to you-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Through David's repentance he obviously learnt from his sin, as we can from each of ours. <a href='B:230 32:9'>Psa 32:9</a> comments that men ought to learn from David’s example, and not be as horses who must have their mouths kept in with a bridle. In <a href='B:230 39:1'>Psa 39:1</a> David reminisces how he had earlier said [before his sin with Bathsheba] that he would stop himself sinning by restraining himself with a bridle. He learnt that sheer will power is not enough; blind resolution to simply ‘obey’ will fail. Instead, it is a living relationship with the Father, a deep sense of His glory, that creates an environment of life where we just won’t do what David did with Bathsheba. This was what he learnt, and this is what he was so eager to pass on to us in the post-Bathsheba Psalms of&nbsp; David's repentance. "Come near" is a common idiom for offering sacrifice and worshipping God. The idea may be that God doesn't want to force men to come near to Him through using the force of bit and bridle; rather does He want genuinely repentant sinners like David, in awe of His grace, to come to Him of themselves with the "understanding" of Him as the God of all grace. But God all the same causes men to "come near" to Him (<a href='B:230 65:4'>Psa 65:4</a> s:w:); but not be coercion, rather by the experience of His grace.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Many sorrows come to the wicked, but grace shall surround him who trusts in Yahweh-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The nervous effects on David may well have continued throughout the rest of his life. Despite exalting in the fact that he has now confessed his sin and been forgiven, David uttered <a href='B:230 32:4'>Psa 32:4</a>: "Day and night thy hand was heavy upon me (in the days before repentance): my moisture is (present tense) turned into the drought of summer. Selah" (AV). Is this not an eloquent picture of the David who was once so sure of himself, full of vitality, now shrivelled up, at least emotionally? "Many sorrows shall be to the wicked: but he that trusteth in the Lord, mercy shall compass him about" (<a href='B:230 32:10'>Psa 32:10</a>) may also give insight here. It does not say 'Many sorrows shall be to the wicked; but the repentant will have joy'. Instead, the contrast is made between sorrow and experiencing God's mercy; as if to imply 'The sorrows brought about by sin will go on and on in this life, but knowing you are surrounded by God's mercy more than compensates'. It takes little imagination to realize how that after his sin, David must have become a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, tortured with deep and manic depressions. David's repentance comes as a relief to the reader.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Be glad in Yahweh, and rejoice, you righteous! Shout for joy, all you who are upright in heart!- see on <a href='B:230 51:4'>Psa 51:4</a>. </p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>We along with all the righteous ought to “shout for joy” that David really was forgiven- for there is such hope for us now. David is our example. No matter how we have sinned, we can still like him feel and be "upright in heart" before God. And yet the intensity of David’s repentance must be ours. He hung his head as one in whose mouth there were no more arguments, hoping only in the Lord’s grace (<a href='B:230 38:14'>Psa 38:14</a> RVmg:). David is seeing himself and the righteous as Job, and he here continues that connection, seeing that Job is described likewise as "upright in heart" (<a href='B:220 1:8'>Job 1:8</a>; <a href='B:220 2:3'>Job 2:3</a>). David sees this as characteristic of all God's people (s:w. <a href='B:230 11:2'>Psa 11:2</a>; <a href='B:230 19:8'>Psa 19:8</a>; <a href='B:230 32:11'>Psa 32:11</a>; <a href='B:230 36:10'>Psa 36:10</a>; <a href='B:230 64:10'>Psa 64:10</a>; <a href='B:230 94:15'>Psa 94:15</a>; <a href='B:230 97:11'>Psa 97:11</a>). He sees the wicked as those who are not upright (<a href='B:230 14:3'>Psa 14:3</a>; <a href='B:230 51:1'>Psa 51:1</a>; <a href='B:230 51:3'>Psa 51:3</a>). But these words which David writes about the wicked are then reinterpreted as applying to all men, God's people included (<a href='B:520 3:12'>Rom 3:12</a>). Like Job, David had to be taught that actually he was failing to see the seriousness of sin; righteousness and acceptability with God is imputed to men by grace through faith, because actually there are none who are upright in heart, apart from God's representative son.</p><h2></h2>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Rejoice in Yahweh, you righteous! Praise is fitting for the upright-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This may continue from the previous Psalm, which has conclude that those like David who have seriously sinned and yet been forgiven::. are the joyfully "upright in heart" who can legitimately "rejoice" (<a href='B:230 32:11'>Psa 32:11</a> s:w:).</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Give thanks to Yahweh with the lyre, sing praises to Him with the harp of ten strings-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This continues the theme of Psalms 32 (see on :1); David is inviting praise to be offered for his forgiveness, and for that which is now demonstrated as possible for all repentant sinners. He was renowned for his harp playing; and he now invites us all to follow him and also take up the harp in worship of the grace shown him.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Sing to Him a new song, play skilfully with a shout of joy!<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'><a href='B:290 42:9-10'>Isa 42:9-10</a> says that we sing the “new song” now, because we sing / meditate of the “new things” which will be in the Kingdom. In that day, we will “sing a new song” (<a href='B:730 5:9'>Rev 5:9</a>; <a href='B:730 14:3'>Rev 14:3</a>). And yet this is undoubtedly picking up on the way in which we can now sing the ‘new song’, every morning (<a href='B:230 33:3'>Psa 33:3</a>; <a href='B:230 40:3'>Psa 40:3</a>; <a href='B:230 96:1'>Psa 96:1</a>; <a href='B:230 98:1'>Psa 98:1</a>; <a href='B:230 144:9'>Psa 144:9</a>; <a href='B:230 149:1'>Psa 149:1</a>). This was how David felt after receiving God's grace over the Bathsheba incidents. Likewise, all things will be made new at the Lord’s coming (<a href='B:730 21:5'>Rev 21:5</a>), and yet those in whom the new creation is worked out already have all things made new in their spiritual experience (<a href='B:540 5:17-18'>2Co 5:17-18</a>). The life that the Lord Jesus had and now lives is the essence of the Kingdom life. Who He was and is, this is the definition of the Kingdom life. It’s why one of His titles is “the kingdom of God” (<a href='B:490 17:21'>Luk 17:21</a>). And it’s why it can be said that we ‘have’ eternal life now, in that we can live the essence of the life we will eternally live, right now.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For the word of Yahweh is right, all His work is done in faithfulness-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The specific word of Yahweh David may have in view is the message from Nathan the prophet which condemned him for his sin with Bathsheba. Part of repentance is acceptance that God is right.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>He loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of the grace of Yahweh-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David so often parallels righteousness and justice / truth (<a href='B:230 9:8'>Psa 9:8</a>; <a href='B:230 33:5'>Psa 33:5</a>; <a href='B:230 37:6'>Psa 37:6</a>; <a href='B:230 72:2'>Psa 72:2</a>; <a href='B:230 94:15'>Psa 94:15</a>; <a href='B:230 99:7'>Psa 99:7</a>; <a href='B:230 103:6'>Psa 103:6</a>; <a href='B:230 106:3'>Psa 106:3</a>). Indeed, this parallel is so common in God's word. What it means is that the righteousness of God is a just righteousness. It's not fake, 'I'll turn a blind eye'. It is true, real, valid, and has integrity underpinned in the very essential justice of God Himself. Justice and righteousness may appear abstract ideas, mere theology. But the result is that the person who believes God's righteousness is imputed to him or her::. will feel this, they will know it to be true, they can by grace, in faith, quietly hold their head up before God. And David after Bathsheba is our example. He believed and felt this imputed righteousness. It's not so much a case of 'forgiving ourselves' after God has forgiven us, but rather of being swamped by this very real and legitimate sense that truly, we have been counted righteous. And Paul in Romans holds up David after Bathsheba as the personal example to "every one who is Godly" in their time of spiritual need. See on <a href='B:230 41:12'>Psa 41:12</a>.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>By Yahweh’s word the heavens were made-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I suggested on :4 that the word of Yahweh which David initially had in view was the message from Nathan the prophet which condemned him for his sin with Bathsheba. But just as that one prophetic word had produced a new creation within David, so that same word called into existence all of creation.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>All their army by the breath of His mouth-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Many passages clearly identify God’s spirit with His power. In order to create the earth, “the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light” (<a href='B:10 1:2-3'>Gen 1:2-3</a>). God’s spirit was the power by which all things, e:g. light, were made. “By His spirit He has created the heavens; His hand has formed the crooked serpent” (<a href='B:220 26:13'>Job 26:13</a>). A comparison of <a href='B:470 12:28'>Mat 12:28</a> and <a href='B:490 11:20'>Luk 11:20</a> shows that “the finger of God” and “the spirit of God” are parallel - God in action is His spirit. “By the word of the Lord were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth” (<a href='B:230 33:6'>Psa 33:6</a>).</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>God’s spirit was seen at work in the creation: “By his spirit he has created the heavens” (<a href='B:220 26:13'>Job 26:13</a>) - the spirit of God moving upon the face of the waters to bring about the present creation (<a href='B:10 1:2'>Gen 1:2</a>). Yet we also read that “by the word of the Lord” the world was made (<a href='B:230 33:6'>Psa 33:6</a>), as shown by the Genesis narrative recording that “God said” things were to be created, and it happened. God’s spirit, therefore, is very much reflected in His word. Likewise our words express our inner thoughts and desires - the real ‘us’ - very accurately. Jesus wisely pointed out: “Out of the abundance of the heart (the mind) the mouth speaks” (<a href='B:470 12:34'>Mat 12:34</a>).</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>He gathers the waters of the sea together as a heap; He lays up the deeps in storehouses-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David's response to his experience of grace was to commit himself to teaching others God's ways (see on <a href='B:230 32:1'>Psa 32:1</a>). And perhaps his idea of building a temple was an outflow from that. As God gathered the waters together, so David responded by gathering together the Gentiles within Israel ("the waters of the sea") to construct a temple (s:w. <a href='B:130 22:2'>1Ch 22:2</a>). And in the restoration context, God was likewise willing to gather together the exiles from the seas of the Gentiles (s:w. <a href='B:230 147:2'>Psa 147:2</a>), repeating the miracle of the Red Sea deliverance, where God's word also made the waters stand as a heap (s:w. <a href='B:230 78:13'>Psa 78:13</a>). As God "lays up::. in storehouses", so David laid up all the required materials with which Solomon was to build the temple.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Let all the earth fear Yahweh, let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David's vision was of all the people within the eretz promised to Abraham coming to fear the God of Israel- all because he had sinned grievously and had been forgiven. </p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For He spoke, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood firm-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As noted on :4,6, the word of Yahweh which David initially had in view was the message from Nathan the prophet which condemned him for his sin with Bathsheba. But just as that one prophetic word had produced a new creation within David, so that same word called into existence all of creation. David likewise was made to 'stand firm' despite his sin (s:w. <a href='B:100 22:34'>2Sa 22:34</a>; <a href='B:230 30:7'>Psa 30:7</a>; <a href='B:230 31:8'>Psa 31:8</a>).</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yahweh brings the counsel of the nations to nothing; He makes the thoughts of the peoples to be of no power-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Perhaps a reference to how by grace God gave David victory over the Ammonites straight after his receipt of forgiveness over the matter of Bathsheba. He saw in that victory an assurance of God's acceptance of him.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The counsel of Yahweh stands fast forever, the thoughts of His heart to all generations-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David likewise was made to 'stand firm' despite his sin (s:w. <a href='B:100 22:34'>2Sa 22:34</a>; <a href='B:230 30:7'>Psa 30:7</a>; <a href='B:230 31:8'>Psa 31:8</a>). See on :9. God's word reflects His thoughts and intentions. David felt he was to become part of that eternal purpose, and his kingdom or "mountain" would stand fast as part of that (<a href='B:230 30:7'>Psa 30:7</a>). He perceived that his kingdom was to be God's Kingdom.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Blessed is the nation whose God is Yahweh, the people whom He has chosen for His own inheritance-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As noted on <a href='B:230 31:6'>Psa 31:6</a>; <a href='B:230 31:14'>Psa 31:14</a>, idolatry was prevalent in the Israel of David's time. But their God was to be Yahweh exclusively, for He had exclusively chosen Israel as His people.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yahweh views from heaven; He sees all the sons of men-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As will be noted on :14, God was seen as looking down here, yet His dwelling place was also seen as being in Zion:&nbsp;</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>From the place of His habitation He looks out on all the inhabitants of the earth-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>That place of habitation may refer to Zion rather than Heaven Himself. For the idea is of God looking out from there upon the peoples of the eretz, rather than looking down upon them.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>He who fashions all of their hearts; and He considers all of their works-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>We have here two apparently contradictory ideas; works reflect thoughts / hearts. Yet God fashions or directs human hearts, and yet He judges their works. Yet from this dialectic comes the conclusion that God indeed works directly upon human hearts, but only in confirming their freewill decisions. And therefore He can legitimately judge their works. In the restoration context, this refers to how God was prepared to fashion or create out of the exiles a new people with new hearts (s:w. <a href='B:290 43:1'>Isa 43:1</a>; <a href='B:290 43:21'>Isa 43:21</a>; <a href='B:290 44:2'>Isa 44:2</a>; <a href='B:290 64:8'>Isa 64:8</a>). The word is also used in the Hezekiah context (<a href='B:290 37:26'>Isa 37:26</a>). David realized that as God fashioned the earth (<a href='B:230 95:5'>Psa 95:5</a>), so He can fashion human hearts (<a href='B:230 33:15'>Psa 33:15</a>). His word and Spirit work in doing both things, with the same boundless possibility and power.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>There is no king saved by the multitude of an army; a mighty man is not delivered by great strength-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The numbering of Israel was a weak moment for David (note <a href='B:100 24:3-4'>2Sa 24:3-4</a>; <a href='B:100 24:10'>2Sa 24:10</a>), leading to suffering for others. Yet this same David had written that “there is no king saved by the multitude of an host” (<a href='B:230 33:16'>Psa 33:16</a>). David apparently wrote this before that realization. He knew the theory, but failed to apply it in reality.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>A horse is a vain thing for safety, neither does he deliver any by his great power-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David was carefully obedient to the Mosaic legislation about not using horses, but instead trusting in the cherubim horses of God's salvation (<a href='B:50 17:16'>Deu 17:16</a>; <a href='B:50 20:1'>Deu 20:1</a>). Solomon his son totally ignored all this, having so many horses he had to build cities to house them all. And yet Solomon was quite obsessed with "David my father"; but when it came to real issues, he ignored David.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Behold, Yahweh’s eye is on those who fear Him, on those who hope in His grace-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'> There is a repeated Biblical theme that the believer's relationship with the Father too is essentially mutual. Our eye is upon Him (<a href='B:230 25:5'>Psa 25:5</a>; <a href='B:230 69:3'>Psa 69:3</a>; <a href='B:230 123:2'>Psa 123:2</a>), as His eye is upon us (<a href='B:230 32:8'>Psa 32:8</a>; <a href='B:230 33:18'>Psa 33:18</a>). The Lord stresses, with apparently needless repetition, that to the man who responds to His word, "I will sup with him and he with me" (<a href='B:730 3:20'>Rev 3:20</a>). And David took this mutuality even further; for in <a href='B:230 32:8'>Psa 32:8</a> David says that in response to his experience of forgiveness regarding Bathsheba, "I will counsel you with my eye on you":&nbsp;</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>to deliver their soul from death, to keep them alive in famine-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Under the old covenant, famine was not supposed to come if the people were obedient. Remember that the context is about his experience of forgiveness regarding the Bathsheba incident. So the idea is that even when suffering the punishment for sin, God will still show grace and keep His repentant people "alive in famine".</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Our soul has waited for Yahweh; He is our help and our shield-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As explained on <a href='B:230 32:1'>Psa 32:1</a>, David was resolved to make his experience of salvation by grace the pattern for all men. And so the Psalm concludes by emphasizing that David's path is "ours":&nbsp;</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For our heart rejoices in Him, because we have trusted in His holy name-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>These words could have been part of David's original Psalm, as suggested on :20; or they could have been added under inspiration by those who later perceived that indeed David's forgiveness and restoration was to be programmatic for all God's people.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Let Your grace be on us, Yahweh, according as we have hope in You- There was no sacrifice prescribed for David's sins with Bathsheba and Uriah; the death penalty was required. But David's vision of God's grace was large enough for him to ask for forgiveness, and his hope for it was not disappointed. But it all depends upon the breadth of our vision. Perhaps the most telling example is in Abraham’s request that God would spare Sodom for the sake of fifty righteous men there. He then lowers the number to 40, and then finally to ten, assuming that surely Lot’s family were righteous and would comprise ten righteous. If Abraham had left off praying at, say, forty::. then this would have been the limit God set. If there were ten righteous there, the city wouldn’t have been saved. But Abraham went on to set the limit at ten. But we wonder, what would have happened if he had gone further and asked God to save Sodom for the sake of one righteous man, i:e. Lot? My sense is that the Father would have agreed. But the city wasn’t saved for the sake of the one man Lot, because Abraham limited God’s desire to save by the smallness of his vision. This principle can possibly be extended even wider.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>In describing his feelings after the Bathsheba experience, David comments that he was "as a man that hears not [the taunts of others against him], and in whose mouth are no rebukes" (<a href='B:230 38:14'>Psa 38:14</a>). The pre-Bathsheba Psalms present David as a man who was so easily hurt by the taunts of others, and whose mouth was indeed full of rebuke of others. &nbsp;David's view of God's mercy was that it would be only according to, proportionate to, our hope in God (<a href='B:230 33:22'>Psa 33:22</a>)- it was only through his Bathsheba experience that David came to know that grace is simply not proportionate to any human virtue.</p><h2></h2>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>By David; when he pretended to be insane before Abimelech, who drove him away, and he departed-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This Psalm is based around the alphabet. But the letters beth and vav are omitted, instead of koph there is resh; and the he section is doubled at the end. This isn't careless construction or corruption, but rather does Hebrew poetry function through such intentional omissions or departures from an expected pattern:&nbsp;</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I will bless Yahweh at all times; His praise will always be in my mouth-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>We are to imagine David leaving Gath, which had seemed like a trap in which he would certainly die, and then feeling the words of this Psalm- and then writing them down for others to sing with him (:3). </p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>My soul shall boast in Yahweh. The humble shall hear of it, and be glad-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David was not going to brag that he had slipped out of encirclement in Gath (see on :1) by his own strength and initiative; rather would he boast in Yahweh's salvation of him. Others who were humbled by their situations would be glad, because David's salvation would be perceived by them as programmatic for them too:&nbsp;</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Oh magnify Yahweh with me, let us exalt His name together!<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Constantly we see David's earnest desire to reach out to others, so that they would make his feelings and essential experiences their own, and also magnify Yahweh. 'Magnify' or 'making great' is a theme of God's relationship with the patriarchs. Abraham's seed was to be magnified / made great (s:w. <a href='B:10 12:2'>Gen 12:2</a>), with His grace magnified toward them (<a href='B:10 19:19'>Gen 19:19</a>). And in response, David wants to magnify Yahweh with the other members of the seed.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I sought Yahweh and He answered me, and delivered me from all my fears-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Those fears were that he was in an enclosed Philistine city, and they had recalled his slaughter of Goliath and many other Philistines whose relatives were in the city. And yet because of that deliverance, David knows that God will likewise save others amongst His people from their difficult situations. “The righteous cried, and the Lord heard”, he could write, with easy reference to his crying to God when with Abimelech [see Psalm title]; but he goes straight on to say that God delivers all the righteous out of all their troubles (<a href='B:230 34:4'>Psa 34:4</a>; <a href='B:230 34:6'>Psa 34:6</a>; <a href='B:230 34:17'>Psa 34:17</a> RV).</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>They looked to Him, and were radiant:; their faces shall never be covered with shame-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Radiant" is the word used of the restoration of the exiles (<a href='B:290 60:5'>Isa 60:5</a>; <a href='B:300 31:12'>Jer 31:12</a>; <a href='B:400 4:1'>Mic 4:1</a>). David's restoration is used as a pattern for the exiles, but the reality was that they didn't repent as he did.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This poor man cried, and Yahweh heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Troubles" is the word used about Jacob, whose cry from exile was heard and he was delivered from his troubles (<a href='B:10 35:3'>Gen 35:3</a>). And the theme of Jacob continues later in the Psalm.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The angel of Yahweh encamps around those who fear Him, and delivers them-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Encamps" means more 'to settle down'- the Angel does not rush into our lives at our frantic behest when we are in a sudden crisis, but has settled down around us for a long time in preparing that trial. This promises that the Angel of the Lord will encamp /Mahanaim around all His servants, just as the Angel did at Mahanaim for Jacob. The allusion is to Jacob. His struggle at [or with] Penuel strikes a chord with each of us. Frank Lake has pointed out that each person struggles to find peace in their relationships with others and also with their God- whether or not they are conscious of those struggles. Jacob’s experience is clearly set up as representative of our own:&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Oh taste and see that Yahweh is good. Blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This is the idea of <a href='B:690 5:9-10'>1Jn 5:9-10</a>: "This is the witness of God::. He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself::. the (i:e. this) witness of God is greater" than that of men. The ultimate proof that the Truth is the Truth is not in the witness of men- be they archaeologists, scientists, good friends or who. The real witness of God is deep in yourself. "Taste and see, that Yahweh is good" is the most powerful appeal.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Oh fear Yahweh, you His saints, for there is no lack to those who fear Him-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David predicates "no lack" upon fearing Yahweh and simply trusting in Him (<a href='B:230 34:8-9'>Psa 34:8-9</a>). Solomon picks up the idea of the righteous experiencing "no lack" but instead claims it is a reward for generosity (s:w. <a href='B:240 28:27'>Pro 28:27</a>). This is a parade example of the difference between David and Solomon. Solomon picks up his father's words and conclusions, but reframes them to justify himself and works rather than faith:&nbsp;</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger, but those who seek Yahweh shall not lack any good thing-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>See on 9. This is the phrase used of how the Israelites "lacked nothing" in the desert (<a href='B:20 16:18'>Exo 16:18</a>; <a href='B:50 2:7'>Deu 2:7</a>; <a href='B:160 9:21'>Neh 9:21</a>), and neither would they in the promised land (<a href='B:50 8:9'>Deu 8:9</a>):&nbsp; The contrast is how the lions lacked, but David the sheep shepherded by Yahweh did not lack / want (<a href='B:230 23:1'>Psa 23:1</a> s:w:). But now David extends that sense to all "who seek Yahweh". His experience was to be theirs. And the phrase is used of how the restored exiles would likewise not lack (<a href='B:290 51:14'>Isa 51:14</a>).</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Come, you children, listen to me. I will teach you the fear of Yahweh-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David had taught his children with these words. Did David say this to his children every evening? And Solomon uses just the same words, even whilst disobeying God’s law at the same time in his own life: “Hear, ye children, the instruction of a father</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'> I give you good doctrine</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'> for I was my father’s son, tender and only beloved in the sight of my mother. He taught me also, and said unto me, Let thine heart retain my words: keep my commandments and live” (<a href='B:240 4:1-4'>Pro 4:1-4</a>). And so Solomon taught his kids with the same outward form of words, although the personal reality of wisdom was lost on him. He repeats these very words of David when teaching his own son: “My son, keep [retain] my words</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'> keep my commandments and live” (<a href='B:240 7:1-2'>Pro 7:1-2</a>). The idea of keeping commandments in order to live is a reference back to the many Deuteronomy passages where Moses pleads with Israel to keep God’s commands and live. But Solomon came to perceive his father David’s commands as those of God, and in his generation he watered this down in his own mind until he assumed that his commands to his children were to be treated by them as the law of God- no matter how far he had strayed himself from God’s law.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Who desires life, and loves many days, that he may see good?<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The prerequisite is to 'desire life::. many days', to actually want to live for ever. And to this day, this is actually lacking in the majority- for all their interest in healthy living and extending lifespans. But the opportunity of eternity is actually not attractive- because their lives are not actually fulfilling because God and His Spirit is not in first place.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Keep your tongue from evil, and your lips from speaking lies-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>We note that in first place was keeping the tongue from evil. David perceived the critical importance of control of our words.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Depart from evil, and do good; seek peace, and pursue it-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David several times speaks of the need to fear God and ‘depart from evil’, and the blessedness of the man who does so (<a href='B:230 34:14'>Psa 34:14</a>; <a href='B:230 37:27'>Psa 37:27</a>); and Solomon repeats his father repeatedly on this point (<a href='B:240 3:7'>Pro 3:7</a>; <a href='B:240 4:27'>Pro 4:27</a>; <a href='B:240 13:19'>Pro 13:19</a>; <a href='B:240 14:16'>Pro 14:16</a>; <a href='B:240 16:6'>Pro 16:6</a>; <a href='B:240 16:17'>Pro 16:17</a>). Yet they are surely alluding to Job, who feared God and “eschewed” [s:w. ‘depart from’] evil (<a href='B:220 1:1'>Job 1:1</a>). Without doubt, these allusions indicate that they saw Job as symbolic of all the righteous. And this is no mere piece of painless Bible exposition; Job in all his turmoil really is the pattern for each one of us, the path through which we each must pass.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yahweh’s eyes are toward the righteous, His ears listen to their cry-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Whilst pretending to be mad in Gath (:1), David was in fact crying out to God. Or perhaps his cries of feigned madness were treated by God as cries to Him. Because God sees situations as prayers; the efficacy of prayer isn't a function of our ability to verbalize. Although "the righteous" here is originally David, his whole idea in the Psalm is that he and his answered prayer is representative of all believers. And this is confirmed by the fact that this verse is quoted about all believers in <a href='B:670 3:12'>1Pe 3:12</a>. It could be that Yahweh's "eyes" have special reference to the Angels who operationalize His response to prayer.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yahweh’s face is against those who do evil, to cut off their memory from the earth-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>In the context of :15, the sense would be that He does not answer the prayers of evildoers. Which means that our experience of answered prayer is therefore a premonition of our ultimate acceptance at the last day.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The righteous cry, and Yahweh hears, and delivers them out of all their troubles-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As discussed on :16, the implication is that the experience of answered prayer is therefore a premonition of our ultimate acceptance at the last day. The allusion is to how Israel in Egypt cried and were heard by the God who delivered them from their troubles (<a href='B:50 26:7'>Deu 26:7</a> s:w:). And yet Israel were hardly "righteous". They took the idols of Israel with them through the Red Sea, carrying the tabernacles of their gods through the desert along with that of Yahweh. Again, as so often, David seems to assume that God's activity depends upon personal righteousness; when after his failure with Bathsheba he came to see that this is not necessarily the case. Because God's grace is different to that.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yahweh is near-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Literally, 'next to', 'neighbour / relative to'. This is how close God feels to the broken hearted and crushed; and conversely, how far He is from the self satisfied and self congratulatory, 'the strong' in secular terms. It is this feature of Yahweh which makes Him unique; no other God has this characteristic of 'nearness' (s:w. <a href='B:50 4:7'>Deu 4:7</a>).</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>To those who have a broken heart, and saves those who have a crushed spirit-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This was how David felt as he pretended to be insane (:1) in order to escape. He was driven so low that his spirit was crushed and broken. We note the parallel between the heart and the spirit. The gift of the Holy Spirit therefore speaks of a new heart being given.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but Yahweh delivers him out of them all-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Total deliverance will only be at the last day, and maybe David has this in view.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>He protects all of his bones; not one of them is broken-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The prophecy of <a href='B:230 34:20'>Psa 34:20</a> about not a bone of the Lord being broken is clearly applied to Him in <a href='B:500 19:36'>Joh 19:36</a>. But the context is clearly about all of us- any righteous man. The preceding verse speaks of how the Lord delivers the righteous man out of all his tribulations- and this verse is applied to other believers apart from the Lord Jesus in <a href='B:510 12:11'>Act 12:11</a> and <a href='B:620 3:11-12'>2Ti 3:11-12</a>. The chilling fact is that we who are in the body of the Lord are indeed co-crucified with Him.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Evil shall kill the wicked; those who hate the righteous shall be condemned-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This is true so far as it goes, but David and Solomon both had a tendency to eagerly condemn their enemies. It was said almost on the eve of Saul's death (see on :1) and indeed it did come about for Saul. Perhaps David's idea was that the wicked would be killed in this life, as he knew Saul would be; but also condemned at the last judgment.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yahweh redeems the soul of His servants; none of those who take refuge in Him shall be condemned- David had taken refuge in Gath and was suffering because of it (see on :1). Perhaps here is a tacit recognition that he should have made Yahweh his city of refuge rather than Gath.</p><h2></h2>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>By David-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Like many of the Psalms, this appears to have begun as a reflection upon Saul, and was then used again by David at the time of Absalom's rebellion.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Contend, Yahweh, with those who contend with me; fight against those who fight against me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>These were exactly David's words about Saul (<a href='B:90 24:15'>1Sa 24:15</a>). David imagined the court of Heaven to be permanently sitting, and he invites God to enter into legal judgment with Saul and then carry out an appropriate judgment. </p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Take hold of shield and buckler, and stand up for my help-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The 'standing up' continues the legal allusions of :1. We may enquire why God is bidden take hold of defensive things like shield and protective armour. Perhaps the idea is that God was to show to David's enemies that all their offensive weaponry was nothing compared to His defense.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Brandish the spear and block those who pursue me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>GNB "Lift up your spear and war ax against those who pursue me". If we stick with "block [the way]", we can think of Saul being turned back from pursuing David by news of a Philistine incursion, or Absalom being persuaded not to follow the advice of Ahithophel in immediately pursuing David.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Tell my soul, I am Your salvation-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David is asking God to persuade him, to tell him in his soul, deep within him. This is another of the frequent indications in the Psalms that David believed God was capable of talking directly to the human heart over and above His written word; for as we see from Psalms 119, David had access to that word anyway. But he asks God to write the reality of salvation deeper in his own soul.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Let those who seek after my soul be disappointed and brought to dishonour. Let those who plot my ruin be turned back and confounded-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Saul sought&nbsp; to take David's life. So many of the Psalms contain imprecations against those who were seeking David's soul- not just his physical life, but seeking to destroy his very being (e:g. <a href='B:230 35:4'>Psa 35:4</a>; <a href='B:230 40:14'>Psa 40:14</a>; <a href='B:230 54:1'>Psa 54:1</a>; <a href='B:230 63:9'>Psa 63:9</a>; <a href='B:230 70:2'>Psa 70:2</a>; <a href='B:230 71:13'>Psa 71:13</a>). These imprecations expose the evil of Saul, and asks God to condemn him. Some of those Psalms appear to have been written by David in the Saul days, and then rewritten at the time of Absalom's rebellion- another man who sought David's soul, and yet whom David loved:&nbsp;The words of this prayer are also in view in <a href='B:230 44:7'>Psa 44:7</a>, where David considers them to have been answered:&nbsp;</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The words are repeated in <a href='B:230 40:14'>Psa 40:14</a>. That Psalm appears to have some reference to David's sin with Bathsheba, which provoked the plotting against David's life referred to here. And yet we wonder as to how David could so bitterly wish the destruction of his opponents, when he himself had been saved by grace.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Let them be as chaff before the wind, Yahweh’s angel driving them on-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David wishes that those who chased him (:6) be chased by God's Angel in the condemnation process of the last day (see on :6). "Chaff before the wind" recalls the destruction of the image representing worldly empires in Daniel 2. This continual wishing of condemnation upon enemies is certainly out of step with the love and prayerful pity for enemies inculcated in the spirit of Christ and specific New Testament teachings:&nbsp;</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The idea of threshing is often associated with the judgement; the unworthy will be as chaff chased by the Angels. The Angels are made spirit (the same word Hebrew word as 'winds') and are being likened to the wind in this threshing process, driving the unworthy away; as Adam, typifying the rejected, was chased out of Eden by the Angels. "As the whirlwind passeth, so is the wicked no more; but the righteous is an everlasting foundation" (<a href='B:240 10:25'>Pro 10:25</a>) appears the basis of the parable of the house on the rock, making the whirlwind correspond to the second coming in judgement. "The whirlwind" is Angel cherubim language; as if it is by that means that the wicked will be destroyed:&nbsp;</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Let their way be dark and slippery, Yahweh’s angel pursuing them-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>See on :6. Again we have to reflect that this willing of men into condemnation is so different to the spirit of the Christ whom David saw in spirit always before his face. The language here is used of God's confirmation of Judah in their sinful way (<a href='B:300 23:12'>Jer 23:12</a> = <a href='B:230 35:6'>Psa 35:6</a>); whichever path we choose, we are confirmed in. Those who are of a slippery tongue (<a href='B:230 55:21'>Psa 55:21</a> s:w:) will be confirmed in this; they will, as it were, slip headlong into condemnation. Their own chosen way is their judgment.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For without cause they have hidden their net in a pit for me, without cause they have dug a pit for my soul-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'> The continued emphasis in David's psalms upon "without cause" surely reflects a self righteousness (<a href='B:230 35:19'>Psa 35:19</a>; <a href='B:230 69:4'>Psa 69:4</a>; <a href='B:230 109:3'>Psa 109:3</a>; <a href='B:230 119:161'>Psa 119:161</a>). For David's righteousness was only impressive relative to the wickedness of his enemies; before God, it was filthy rags. It was true that Saul persecuted David "without cause" (s:w. <a href='B:90 19:5'>1Sa 19:5</a>), but the experience of "without cause" persecution can lead us to an inappropriate self-righteousness. This is what happened to Job, who also suffered "without cause" (s:w. <a href='B:220 2:3'>Job 2:3</a>), and had to be convicted of self-righteousness at the end of the story. And it seems this happened to David. David himself intended to shed blood "without cause" and was only saved from it by grace (s:w. <a href='B:90 25:31'>1Sa 25:31</a>).</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Let destruction come on him unawares. Let his net that he has hidden catch himself; let him fall into that destruction-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This death wish seems to have come true of Absalom rather than Saul; for Absalom's death by his hair catching in a tree and literally falling to his death after being struck dead there would be more appropriate to these words than Saul's death. And David was to bitterly mourn Absalom's death. We need to ask ourselves how we would really feel if our bitter feelings were actually fulfilled by God.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>My soul shall be joyful in Yahweh, I shall rejoice in His salvation-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>When David's great enemies (Saul and Absalom) did fall, David mourned and didn't rejoice.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>All my bones shall say, Yahweh, who is like You, who delivers the poor from him who is too strong for him; yes, the poor and the needy from him who robs him?<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Just as the description of Absalom's death in :8 didn't exactly come true for Absalom, so we wonder how David was robbed by his enemies. However he may have in view the fact that Saul and Absalom abused the poor generally, as was foretold of Saul by Samuel. It was this, rather than Saul's actual persecution of David, which David sees as the prime example of Saul's wickedness.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Unrighteous witnesses rise up; they accuse me of things that I know nothing about-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Again we struggle to find much evidence of this in the historical records; but the intrigues after the sin with Bathsheba may well be what is in view. And Saul likely mobilized support for his anti-David campaign by a slander campaign, saying things such as those willingly believed by Nabal (<a href='B:90 25:10'>1Sa 25:10</a>).</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>They reward me evil for good, to the bereaving of my soul-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This is exactly the language of how Saul treated David, who showed him "good" in preserving his life, and was rewarded for it with "evil" by Saul (<a href='B:90 24:17'>1Sa 24:17</a>). This injustice bereaved David, he was deeply hurt by the injustice of it all. We only sense this here in the Psalms; the historical record gives little indication of the psychological trauma David experienced because of it.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>But as for me, when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth, I afflicted my soul with fasting-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Saul is in view (see on :12). The sickness of Saul was psychological, and David not only played the harp for him but also prayed and fasted in sackcloth for him. This again is something we don't see in the historical records.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>My prayer returned into my own bosom-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>GNB "I prayed with my head bowed low", ESV "with head bowed on my chest". But it could also be an idiom implying his prayer had gone unanswered (as in <a href='B:470 10:13'>Mat 10:13</a>; <a href='B:230 79:12'>Psa 79:12</a>). Or he could mean that although the prayer was unanswered, a blessing still returned to him because he had prayed (as in <a href='B:300 18:20'>Jer 18:20</a>).</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I behaved myself as though it had been my friend or my brother. I bowed down mourning, as one who mourns his mother-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This is one verse which to me is a cameo of the extent of the victory which David won against the mind of the flesh, against our massive tendency to repay sin with sin, bitterness with bitterness, anger with anger. If we take nothing else away from this, please focus your mind on this, and keep the memory: Here David protests his love for the one who was persecuting him (:12) and is reflecting upon his attitude to Saul's death. "As one who mourns for his mother". This is surely one of the most powerful figures that could be employed. Picture a young man of say 24, in a dark blue suit, kneeling down at the graveside of his mother, surrounded by friends and relatives, bowing down heavily in his grief. Or picture a man of 34, 44, 54, hair greying and receding now, bowing himself down heavily. Or even 64, 74, alone in his grief, bowing down heavily to the green turf, muttering words about mum. Perhaps some of us haven't yet experienced this; many have. If you haven't, just imagine it. Surely it brings a lump to your throat. Now it was with this intensity of grief that David mourned the death or sickness of his persecutor. This is a wondrous reflection of his devotion, his true love, his triumph over bitterness and anger, over all the human actions that had been directed against him. The heavy bowing down of the Lord Jesus as he wept over Jerusalem, the city that hated and rejected him, whose leaders slew him, whose people screamed for his blood. David wept for Saul as if he was his friend or brother. Who was David's friend and brother? Surely Jonathan his brother-in-law. But he wept for Saul, David says, as he wept for Jonathan. This is testified to historically by David's lament of 2 Samuel 1. And still David sought out the house of Saul, “that I may shew the kindness of God” unto them (<a href='B:100 9:3'>2Sa 9:3</a>). It was the experience of Divine kindness that motivated David. As he hoped for fellowship at the King’s table in the future, so David delighted in inviting his former enemies to partake of his table, now he was king (<a href='B:100 9:7'>2Sa 9:7</a>; <a href='B:100 9:11'>2Sa 9:11</a>; <a href='B:100 9:13'>2Sa 9:13</a>). And if we hope to share the Lord’s table in the Kingdom, we must share it with our weaker brethren now. I see in all this such a triumph for David, that a man should reflect the love of God to such an extent, to love in the face of such hatred, to not just love those who loved him.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The deep sorrow of the Lord Jesus for Judas and all those who turn away is surely typified here. Right at the bitter end, the Lord still referred to him as His friend (<a href='B:470 26:50'>Mat 26:50</a>), even though a few hours before He had been speaking of how the faithful few were His friends, and how He would give His life for His friends (<a href='B:500 15:13-15'>Joh 15:13-15</a>). Throughout His ministry, the Lord had spoken of the faithful as His friends (<a href='B:490 14:20'>Luk 14:20</a>; <a href='B:490 11:8'>Luk 11:8</a>; <a href='B:490 12:4'>Luk 12:4</a>). This was the spirit of the Lord Jesus in His time of dying, this is what enabled Him to&nbsp; go through the mock trial, the intense degradation, the bitter pain of rejection, without bitterness and the sin of unholy anger. To be like David to Saul, like Paul to Corinth, like Christ to the Jews, like God to us, really is possible. If that's how we can live, we will truly be in the new life.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>But in my adversity-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Literally 'limping', a strange term to use, until we perceive yet another allusion to Jacob limping home from exile (s:w. <a href='B:10 32:31'>Gen 32:31</a>). The same word is used of the exiles who were to be regathered and reestablished as a kingdom in the face of all opposition (<a href='B:400 4:6-7'>Mic 4:6-7</a>).</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>They rejoiced, and gathered themselves together. The attackers gathered themselves together against me, and I didn’t know it. They tore at me, and didn’t cease-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This may refer to Saul's various secret plans to kill David, hidden from him even by those supposedly close to him.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Like the profane mockers in feasts, they gnashed their teeth at me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>These feasts may be a reference to idol worship, which was prevalent in Israel at David's time and amongst his enemies (see on <a href='B:230 31:6'>Psa 31:6</a>). There may also be reference to Absalom's deceitful feasts of <a href='B:100 13:24'>2Sa 13:24</a>; <a href='B:100 15:7-10'>2Sa 15:7-10</a>. Gnashing of teeth is the language of condemnation at the last day (<a href='B:470 8:12'>Mat 8:12</a> etc:). But those thus condemned will have gnashed their teeth at their brethren in this life. By doing so, they are living out their own condemnation.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Lord, how long will You look on? Rescue my soul from their destruction, my precious life from the lions-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'> "Precious life" is literally 'my darling', 'my only one'. I suggest this isn't narcissism, but rather a rightful appreciation of the value and meaning of our own life; which we want preserved so that we can use it for God.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I will give You thanks in the great assembly, I will praise You among many people-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David's vision was to take the good news of God's grace to the assembly of God's people and also to the "many people" of the Gentiles. David knew his sinfulness, he knew his reliance upon the grace of God, more and more as he got older. One would have thought that after the Bathsheba incident, David would have kept his mouth shut so far as telling other people how to live was concerned. But instead, we find an increasing emphasis in the Psalms (chronologically) upon David's desire to teach others of God's ways- particularly the surrounding Gentile peoples, before whom David had been disgraced over Bathsheba, not to mention from his two faced allegiance to Achish (<a href='B:90 27:8-12'>1Sa 27:8-12</a>). There is real stress upon this evangelistic fervour of David (<a href='B:230 4:3'>Psa 4:3</a>; <a href='B:230 18:49'>Psa 18:49</a>; <a href='B:230 22:25'>Psa 22:25</a>; <a href='B:230 22:31'>Psa 22:31</a>; <a href='B:230 35:18'>Psa 35:18</a>; <a href='B:230 40:9-10'>Psa 40:9-10</a>; <a href='B:230 57:9'>Psa 57:9</a>; <a href='B:230 62:8'>Psa 62:8</a>; <a href='B:230 66:5'>Psa 66:5</a>; <a href='B:230 66:16'>Psa 66:16</a>; <a href='B:230 95:1'>Psa 95:1</a>; <a href='B:230 95:8'>Psa 95:8</a>; <a href='B:230 96:5-8'>Psa 96:5-8</a>; <a href='B:230 96:10'>Psa 96:10</a>; <a href='B:230 100:1-4'>Psa 100:1-4</a>; <a href='B:230 105:1-2'>Psa 105:1-2</a>; <a href='B:230 119:27'>Psa 119:27</a>; <a href='B:230 145:5-6'>Psa 145:5-6</a>; <a href='B:230 145:12'>Psa 145:12</a>). Indeed, <a href='B:230 71:18'>Psa 71:18</a> records the "old and greyheaded" David pleading with God not to die until he had taught "thy strength unto this generation". As with Paul years later, the only reason he wanted to stay alive was in order to witness the Gospel of grace to others. David&nbsp;therefore coped with his deep inner traumas by looking out of himself to those around him, eagerly desiring to share with them the pureness of God's grace. He didn't do this as some kind of self-help psychiatry; it came naturally from a realization of his own sinfulness and God's mercy, and the wonderful willingness&nbsp;of God to extend this to men.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>It is the struggle of every spiritually minded and righteous man to humble himself to accept he is only part of a far wider congregation, comprised of believers who may frankly be less spiritually minded than himself (<a href='B:230 26:12'>Psa 26:12</a>; <a href='B:230 35:18'>Psa 35:18</a>; <a href='B:230 68:26'>Psa 68:26</a>). David and the Lord Jesus are parade examples of achieving this sense.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Don’t let those who are my enemies wrongfully rejoice over me; neither let those who hate me without a cause wink their eyes-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For "without a cause", see on :7. "Wrongfully" reflects again David's deep sense of injustice (see on <a href='B:230 35:7'>Psa 35:7</a>). He uses the word for "false witness", as if they were breaking one of the ten commandments; and he uses it often, heaping condemnation upon any who dare lie / bear false witness about him (<a href='B:230 38:19'>Psa 38:19</a>; <a href='B:230 52:3'>Psa 52:3</a>; <a href='B:230 63:11'>Psa 63:11</a>; <a href='B:230 101:7'>Psa 101:7</a>; <a href='B:230 119:29'>Psa 119:29</a>; <a href='B:230 119:69'>Psa 119:69</a>; <a href='B:230 119:86'>Psa 119:86</a>; <a href='B:230 119:118'>Psa 119:118</a>; <a href='B:230 120:2'>Psa 120:2</a>; <a href='B:230 144:8'>Psa 144:8</a>; <a href='B:230 144:11'>Psa 144:11</a>). And yet David lied and deceived in order to get Uriah killed so that he could take his wife for himself. Surely reflection upon that sin made him realize that his zeal to condemn dishonesty was at best misplaced; to lament it is one thing, but David was to be taught that he had himself done the very thing he so condemned.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For they don’t speak peace, but they devise deceitful words against those who are quiet in the land-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The devising of words reflects David's deep sense that the essence of spirituality is deep in the mind or heart; words issue from the heart.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yes, they opened their mouth wide against me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The allusion to lions or wild animals is so frequent in David's thinking. His victories over wild animals in his youth remained an abiding memory.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>They said, Aha! Aha! Our eye has seen it!<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The weakness they thought their eyes had seen was nothing compared to the way Yahweh's eye had seen them (:22):&nbsp;</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>You have seen it, Yahweh. Don’t keep silent. Lord, don’t be far from me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>See on :21. The plea for God not to "be far from me" is common (<a href='B:230 22:11'>Psa 22:11</a>; <a href='B:230 22:19'>Psa 22:19</a>; <a href='B:230 35:22'>Psa 35:22</a>; <a href='B:230 38:21'>Psa 38:21</a>; <a href='B:230 71:12'>Psa 71:12</a>). The emphasis perhaps is to be placed upon David not wanting God to be far from him, seeing that he felt others were 'far' from him (s:w. <a href='B:230 88:8'>Psa 88:8</a>; <a href='B:230 88:18'>Psa 88:18</a>). He accepted his social and psychological isolation from others, but he didn't want God to be likewise far off from him. In the context of the exiles, God was willing to not be 'far off' from the exiles if they repented (<a href='B:290 46:13'>Isa 46:13</a>).</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Wake up! Rise up to defend me, my God! My Lord, contend for me!<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>A window on what communication can be with our creator is provided by considering the&nbsp; ‘imprecatory Psalms’ like this one; where the writer wishes terrible judgments upon his enemies. It is possible to understand these Psalms in terms of the promises to Abraham- that God will curse those who curse the true seed of Abraham. They can therefore be seen to be merely asking for the promises to Abraham to be fulfilled against God’s enemies. But another angle on this problem is to consider how the Psalmists talk to God in a far ‘rougher’ way than we do. They pour out their feelings, their anger and frustration with their enemies, their inability to understand how God is working</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'> and they let it all hang down. They seem to have no reserve with God; they talk to Him as if He is their friend and acquaintance. David pleads with God to ‘avenge my cause’ (<a href='B:230 35:23'>Psa 35:23</a>), he protests how he is in the right and how he longs for God to judge him. And so do the prophets, in the interjections they sometimes make in commentary on the prophecy they have just uttered. The emotion which David often seems to have felt was “Damn these people!”, but he pours this out to God and asks Him to damn them. When we like David feel our enemies are unjust, we can:</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>1. Seek revenge. But this isn’t a response we can make, Biblically.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>2. Deny the feelings of hurt and anger. And yet, they surface somehow. And we join the ranks of the millions of hurt people in this world, who ‘take it out’ in some way on others.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>3. Or we can do as David seems to have done. Take these feelings, absolutely as they are, with no rough edges smoothed off them</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>to God Himself. Pour them all out in prayer and leave Him to resolve the matter. In passing, this fits in with the conclusions of modern psychiatry- that we can’t eliminate our feelings, so we must express them in an appropriate way.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This latter option is how I understand the imprecatory Psalms.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Vindicate me, Yahweh my God, according to Your righteousness. Don’t let them gloat over me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Time and again in the Psalms, David expresses his good conscience in terms of asking God to come and judge him (e:g. <a href='B:230 35:24'>Psa 35:24</a>). Was this not some reference to the future theophany which David knew some day would come?</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Don’t let them say in their heart, Aha! That’s just the way we want it! Don’t let them say, We have swallowed him up!<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The reference may be to Ahithophel's plan to swallow up David at the time of Absalom's rebellion (<a href='B:100 17:12'>2Sa 17:12</a>; <a href='B:100 17:16'>2Sa 17:16</a> s:w:). David's prayer of <a href='B:230 35:25'>Psa 35:25</a>; <a href='B:230 69:15'>Psa 69:15</a>; <a href='B:230 124:3'>Psa 124:3</a> not to be swallowed up / destroyed was answered, but he was devastated at the answer- for it meant the death of his son Absalom. Again David has Job in mind, who had his 'brethren' arguing that he should be swallowed up / destroyed without cause (<a href='B:220 2:3'>Job 2:3</a> s:w:).</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Let them be disappointed and confounded together who rejoice at my calamity. Let them be clothed with shame and dishonour who magnify themselves against me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The only other occurrence of the phrase "rejoice at my calamity" is in <a href='B:240 2:14'>Pro 2:14</a>, where David's son Solomon condemns those who "rejoice to do evil" (s:w:). He is quoting these reflections of David upon the coalition of haters who joined Absalom in trying to overthrow him. Solomon speaks the truth, but he does so with an eye on justifying himself against his brother Absalom and those who had followed him. Always Solomon is harnessing 'truth' to an agenda of self-justification; and we must be warned by thIsa.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Let them shout for joy and be glad, who favour my righteous cause. Yes, let them say continually, Yahweh be magnified, who has pleasure in the prosperity of His servant!<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David's desire for the glorification of God rather than himself is always to be noted and commended. His own name had been magnified (<a href='B:130 11:9'>1Ch 11:9</a>), by God's grace; but he wanted Yahweh's Name to be magnified by as many as possible, as well as by himself. </p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>My tongue shall talk about Your righteousness and about Your praise all day long- Although David asks for his "righteous cause" to be favoured (:27), he rejoices not in his rightness, but in God's righteousness.</p><h2></h2>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For the Chief Musician. By David, the servant of Yahweh.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>An oracle is within my heart about the disobedience of the wicked: There is no fear of God before his eyes-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Saul was characterized by disobedience, and it was specifically for this that he was rejected by God and replaced with David. But David seems overly focused upon the disobedience of others, when he himself was also a sinner. Therefore <a href='B:520 3:18'>Rom 3:18</a> quotes these words about all men, including those like David who are saved by grace through faith. Paul is applying the descriptions of the very worst of humanity and admitting that in essence, this is what is going on within his heart and within the heart of every man. Truly, bad man only do what good mean dream of. We may well enquire how David thought he knew the state of heart [AV "inward part"] of his enemies (<a href='B:230 5:9'>Psa 5:9</a>; <a href='B:230 36:1'>Psa 36:1</a>; <a href='B:230 49:11'>Psa 49:11</a>; <a href='B:230 62:4'>Psa 62:4</a>; <a href='B:230 64:6'>Psa 64:6</a>). Perhaps it was a result of his reflection upon how he had only had a right spirit or heart given by God "within" him as a result of his repentance (<a href='B:230 51:10'>Psa 51:10</a> s:w:). His enemies were impenitent, and so perhaps on that basis he knew what was in their hearts.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For he flatters himself in his own eyes, too much to detect and hate his sin-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As discussed on :1, we may wonder how David can be confident he knows so much about the state of Saul's heart. He had been summoned to play the harp for Saul so that the "evil spirit" or depressed attitude of mind would leave Saul. He was therefore working as an amateur psychologist; his work was not merely to play a harp, but to lift Saul's depression. And this Psalm is as it were his case report on Saul's heart. Self flattery is indeed the reason why personal sin cannot be detected in self examination. And depression, such as Saul suffered, is not of itself humility; it can be, as with Saul, self flattery.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The words of his mouth are iniquity and deceit; he has ceased to be wise and to do good-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Saul initially wisely refused to go after those who opposed his kingship, and is presented as thoughtful for his father's feelings (<a href='B:90 9:5'>1Sa 9:5</a>). But from there he embarked upon a downward spiral of self deception which resulted in being deceitful to others, not least to his servant David. Solomon may allude here in saying that we are to cease (s:w:) from our own wisdom (<a href='B:240 23:4'>Pro 23:4</a>). Saul went the other way; he ceased from God's wisdom and turned to his own wisdom. His access to Divine wisdom was surely through Samuel's prophetic words to him.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>He plots iniquity on his bed-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David rightly perceived that what a man thinks alone on his bed is a litmus indicator of his essential spirituality&nbsp; (<a href='B:230 4:4'>Psa 4:4</a>; <a href='B:230 149:5'>Psa 149:5</a>), and he condemns Saul for plotting sin on his bed (<a href='B:230 36:4'>Psa 36:4</a>). And yet the same phrase "on his bed" is used for how David plotted the sin with Bathsheba on his bed (<a href='B:100 11:2'>2Sa 11:2</a>). David was surely taught by his sin that he had been too quick to condemn others for their wicked thoughts upon their beds.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>He sets himself up in a way that is not good. He doesn’t hate evil-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>To omit to hate evil is the same as to commit it. The Messianic king was to "hate evil" (s:w. <a href='B:290 7:15-16'>Isa 7:15-16</a>), just as Job did. But Saul precluded all the possibilities to be the anointed / Messianic king by loving evil:&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Your grace, Yahweh, is in the heavens; Your faithfulness reaches to the skies-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'> This understanding of "mercy and truth", a phrase often used about the promises to Abraham, was what sustained David when he realized he had sinned with Bathsheba and Uriah. He perceived God's grace was infinite, and this faith was put to the test by his sin. It's amazing how God works even through human failure to lead us further along the path of knowing His grace.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Your righteousness is like the great mountains; Your judgments are like a great deep. Yahweh, You preserve man and animal-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The infinite height of God's grace (:6) is compared to the height and depth of His rightness and justice. His grace isn't cheap, neither does it infringe His holiness and righteousness. This is the infinite wonder of it all. Some reverence God's physical power and majesty rather than His moral majesty. David got the balance right when he reflected that God's righteousness "is like the great mountains". He saw God's moral strength reflected in the massive physicality of God's creation. Job had to be taught this lesson:&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>How precious is Your grace, O God!<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Even before his sin with Bathsheba, David talks much about God's grace. But clearly he never appreciated it fully until after he was personally thrown upon it in moral terms; and the same can be true of us. For who can say they have fathomed God's grace. There are rungs up the ladder in appreciating it.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The children of men take refuge under the shadow of Your wings-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David often says that this is where he personally feels located, under the cherubic wings overshadowing the mercy seat, with the shekinah glory above him and the blood of atonement beneath him. But he invites all God's people to share his experience; that is the purpose of his Psalms.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>They shall be abundantly satisfied with the abundance of Your house-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Although exiled from the sanctuary whilst persecuted by Saul, David knew that finally he would return to it. And he saw himself as representative of all God's people; which made his Psalms so relevant to the exiles. Perhaps "house" was inserted when the psalms were rewritten for the exiles; for there was no "house" of God in David's time.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>You will make them drink of the river of Your pleasures-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>God will "make us" partake of the blessings of the Kingdom of God. It reminds us of how the Lord Jesus said that in His Kingdom, He will "make us" sit down at a table, and He will come and serve us (<a href='B:490 12:37'>Luk 12:37</a>), knowing full well that he who sits at meat is greater than he who serves (<a href='B:490 22:27'>Luk 22:27</a>). It isn't so difficult to imagine this scene: the Lord of glory wanting us to sit down to a meal, and then He comes and serves us. He will have to "make us" sit down and let ourselves be served. Perhaps "Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the Kingdom" (<a href='B:470 25:34'>Mat 25:34</a>) likewise suggests a hesitancy of the faithful to enter the Kingdom, seeing they have had such doubt about salvation. Perhaps this is typified by Joseph's revelation to his brethren; they slink away from him, and he has to encourage them: "Come near to me, I pray you" (<a href='B:10 45:4'>Gen 45:4</a>).</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"River" can as well mean "spring" (see :9), and may refer to the Gihon spring near mount Zion; David understood this as representative of God's eternal blessings which the righteous will partake of. "Pleasures" is related to the word for Eden; David envisaged Eden restored, based around the sanctuary in Zion. He was looking very much ahead; for at that time, Zion was not under Israelite control nor had David yet moved the sanctuary there.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For with You is the spring of life; in Your light shall we see light-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David saw the spring in Zion (see on :8) as a symbol of eternal life, and the day when God's light would be the light of all His people. No longer would the shekinah glory be just over the ark, but would be global. And perhaps he looks ahead to the Lord Jesus, who was to be God's light (<a href='B:500 1:4'>Joh 1:4</a>; <a href='B:500 1:9'>Joh 1:9</a>). In that light do we understand all things.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Oh continue Your grace to those who know You, Your righteousness to the upright in heart-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David is seeing himself and the righteous as Job, and he here continues that connection, seeing that Job is described likewise as "upright in heart" (<a href='B:220 1:8'>Job 1:8</a>; <a href='B:220 2:3'>Job 2:3</a>). David sees this as characteristic of all God's people (s:w. <a href='B:230 11:2'>Psa 11:2</a>; <a href='B:230 19:8'>Psa 19:8</a>; <a href='B:230 32:11'>Psa 32:11</a>; <a href='B:230 36:10'>Psa 36:10</a>; <a href='B:230 64:10'>Psa 64:10</a>; <a href='B:230 94:15'>Psa 94:15</a>; <a href='B:230 97:11'>Psa 97:11</a>). He sees the wicked as those who are not upright (<a href='B:230 14:3'>Psa 14:3</a>; <a href='B:230 51:1'>Psa 51:1</a>; <a href='B:230 51:3'>Psa 51:3</a>). But these words which David writes about the wicked are then reinterpreted as applying to all men, God's people included (<a href='B:520 3:12'>Rom 3:12</a>). Like Job, David had to be taught that actually he was failing to see the seriousness of sin; righteousness and acceptability with God is imputed to men by grace through faith, because actually there are none who are upright in heart, apart from God's representative son.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Don’t let the foot of pride come against me; don’t let the hand of the wicked drive me away-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Foot and hand are paralleled, as are "pride" and "the wicked". David rightly saw pride as the epitome of wickedness. "Drive away" is s:w. "vagabond" (<a href='B:10 4:12'>Gen 4:12</a>; <a href='B:10 4:14'>Gen 4:14</a>). He didn't want to permanently be like Cain, exiled from the sanctuary. His love of the sanctuary is repeated throughout the Psalms, and came to full term in his plans to build the temple; his exile from it was perhaps to teach him that God really doesn't live in structures, and is equally present in human hearts wherever they are. Perhaps we all too have David's tension between his love of the structure on one hand, and his personal spirituality on the other.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>There the workers of iniquity are fallen, they are thrust down, and shall not be able to rise- "There" appears to refer to David's imagination of the outcome of the day of judgment. He sees the punishment of the wicked as being put down permanently into the grave, suffering "the second death"- and not eternal torment.</p><h2></h2>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>By David-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This psalm of David has clear relevance to the exiles, awaiting a "soon" restoration to the land of Israel. It appears to have been rewritten, under inspiration, with reference to them. The Psalms of David are typically about his own personal desires and hopes for restoration, but this Psalm is solely an encouragement to others.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Don’t fret because of evildoers, neither be envious against those who work unrighteousness-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Those who "work unrighteousness" is a phrase frequently used of the apostate amongst the exiles in Babylon (e:g. <a href='B:330 18:24'>Eze 18:24</a>; <a href='B:330 33:13'>Eze 33:13</a> cp. <a href='B:430 3:13'>Zep 3:13</a>). The faithful were not to be envious of their apparent success in Babylon but instead to focus upon the hope of restoration to the land.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For they shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither like the green plant-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The language of how things were to be at the restoration (<a href='B:290 40:7-8'>Isa 40:7-8</a>).</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Trust in Yahweh, and do good. Dwell in the land, and enjoy safe pasture-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>In the restoration context, this could be similar to Jeremiah's message for the exiles to dwell in Babylon and establish themselves, but in hope of eternal inheritance of the land of Israel. Or the idea could be that by a return to faith and good behaviour, the flock of Judah would be restored to their land and find safe pasture there, a figure used like this in Ezekiel 34.</p>&nbsp;<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The believing life affects every part of human existence. Thus Psalms 37 parallels those who have faith, who do good (:3), who hope (:9), who are meek (:11), pure (:18), generous (:22), just (:28), wise, speakers of truth (:29), waiting for the Lord (:34), peacemakers (:37). It’s not that some of us have faith and another, e:g:, is generous. We may be better at some aspects of the Christ-life than others, but our model is Him, as a total person. The image of slavery suggests a total devotion of life to our Lord’s cause. Just as every part of the animal had to be offered, so we as “living sacrifices” (<a href='B:520 12:1'>Rom 12:1</a>) cannot just offer certain aspects of our lives to the Lord.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Also delight yourself in Yahweh, and He will give you the desires of your heart-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The desires of the heart is paralleled in this Psalm with inheriting the land eternally. If this is our greatest desire, we shall receive it. This is a sublime truth. All those who truly love the Lord's appearing as the master passion of their lives- will be acceptable to Him (<a href='B:620 4:8'>2Ti 4:8</a>). This is why the hope of the Kingdom can never be a mere hobby, but is by its very nature the all consuming passion of human life. Perhaps David alludes to his own overriding passion and desire for relationship with God and salvation in <a href='B:230 38:9'>Psa 38:9</a>.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Commit your way to Yahweh. Trust also in Him, and He will do this-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>What He will "do" is to grant the desire of our heart (:4), which is defined in this Psalm as eternally inheriting the land. And this will be achieved by imputing righteousness to us (:6). We are to commit our life's way to Yahweh, knowing that it is His desire to grant us our heart's desire- a place in His Kingdom. David speaks of committing our life's way to Yahweh and then trusting that He will bring us to His Kingdom; Solomon tweaks this into "Commit [s:w:] your works unto Yahweh" (<a href='B:240 16:3'>Pro 16:3</a>). We see here Solomon's works-based approach.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>He will make your righteousness go forth as the light, and your justice as the noon day sun-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>In the immediate context, this refers to righteousness being imputed as the basis upon which believers can eternally inherit the land; see on :4,5.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David so often parallels righteousness and justice / truth (<a href='B:230 9:8'>Psa 9:8</a>; <a href='B:230 33:5'>Psa 33:5</a>; <a href='B:230 37:6'>Psa 37:6</a>; <a href='B:230 72:2'>Psa 72:2</a>; <a href='B:230 94:15'>Psa 94:15</a>; <a href='B:230 99:7'>Psa 99:7</a>; <a href='B:230 103:6'>Psa 103:6</a>; <a href='B:230 106:3'>Psa 106:3</a>). Indeed, this parallel is so common in God's word. What it means is that the righteousness of God is a just righteousness. It's not fake, 'I'll turn a blind eye'. It is true, real, valid, and has integrity underpinned in the very essential justice of God Himself. Justice and righteousness may appear abstract ideas, mere theology. But the result is that the person who believes God's righteousness is imputed to him or her::. will feel this, they will know it to be true, they can by grace, in faith, quietly hold their head up before God. And David after Bathsheba is our example. He believed and felt this imputed righteousness. It's not so much a case of 'forgiving ourselves' after God has forgiven us, but rather of being swamped by this very real and legitimate sense that truly, we have been counted righteous. And Paul in Romans holds up David after Bathsheba as the personal example to " every one who is Godly" in their time of spiritual need. See on <a href='B:230 41:12'>Psa 41:12</a>.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Rest in Yahweh, and wait patiently for Him-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>He delays the second coming because He waits and hopes for repentance and spiritual growth from us. But He praises the faithful for patiently waiting for Him (<a href='B:290 30:18'>Isa 30:18</a>; <a href='B:230 37:7'>Psa 37:7</a>). Here we see the humility of God's grace.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Don’t fret because of him who prospers in his way, because of the man who makes wicked plots happen-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>In the restoration context, this clearly applies to the "wicked Haman" (<a href='B:190 7:6'>Est 7:6</a>), who apparently prospered and made wicked plots.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Cease from anger, and forsake wrath. Don’t fret, it leads only to evildoing-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>God's anger was to cease in the salvation of the exiles (<a href='B:230 85:4'>Psa 85:4</a>; <a href='B:290 10:25'>Isa 10:25</a>; <a href='B:290 54:8'>Isa 54:8</a>; <a href='B:290 60:10'>Isa 60:10</a>), as it has towards us. And if we believe this, then we too are to cease from anger and wrath, seeing every provocation of our wrath as an opportunity to live out how God has ceased from&nbsp; wrath with us.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For evildoers shall be cut off, but those who wait for Yahweh shall inherit the land-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Those who wait for Yahweh are clearly the faithful amongst the exiles, waiting for the prophetic word of restoration to come true. These thoughts had their genesis whilst David was on the run from Saul, encouraging those with him that one day soon they would rule the Kingdom which would fall to David.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For yet a little while, and the wicked will be no more-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The expectation of restoration and salvation from the wicked in "a little while" is very relevant to the exiles. Our sufferings now are only for a moment compared to the glorious eternity of the Kingdom (<a href='B:230 37:10'>Psa 37:10</a>; <a href='B:540 4:17'>2Co 4:17</a>), and yet the language of the Bible also expresses God’s appreciation that from our perspective, our time of probation is “a long time” (<a href='B:470 25:19'>Mat 25:19</a>).</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yes, though you look for his place, he isn’t there-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Solomon in his collapse of faith appears to allude here; but he considers that not finding the place of the deceased is just an example of life's vanity (<a href='B:250 8:10'>Ecc 8:10</a> s:w:). David his father saw it is a triumph of good over evil and a foretaste of how things shall be eternally put right at the last day. But Solomon lost the kingdom perspective, using the words of David his father simply in a secular sense.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>But the humble shall inherit the land, and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This "abundance of peace" is the language of the restored Kingdom of God upon earth (<a href='B:230 72:3'>Psa 72:3</a>). The Lord quotes this in <a href='B:470 5:5'>Mat 5:5</a>. The potential possible for the exiles was precluded by their lack of repentance; but the prophecies of eternal restoration are reinterpreted and reapplied to the Kingdom of the Lord Jesus which is to be established at His return.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The wicked plots against the just, and gnashes at him with his teeth-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Just as they will at the last day (<a href='B:230 112:10'>Psa 112:10</a>). Gnashing of teeth is the language of condemnation at the last day (<a href='B:470 8:12'>Mat 8:12</a> etc:). But those thus condemned will have gnashed their teeth at their brethren in this life. By doing so, they are living out their own condemnation.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The Lord will laugh at him, for He sees that his day is coming-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The Lord laughing at the wicked is the language of Psalms 2 about the final day of judgment, and also has relevance to the situation in Jerusalem at Hezekiah's time (<a href='B:290 37:22'>Isa 37:22</a>).</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Throughout David’s Psalms in Psalms 1-72, he repeatedly asks for torture upon the sinners and blessing upon himself as the righteous. He speaks of how sinners should be “contemned” in the eyes of the righteous (<a href='B:230 15:4'>Psa 15:4</a>), the gatherings of sinners should be “hated” and sinners should not be fellowshipped (<a href='B:230 26:4-6'>Psa 26:4-6</a>; <a href='B:230 31:6'>Psa 31:6</a>) and how God’s uprightness is shown to the upright and His judgment to the judgmental (<a href='B:230 18:25-26'>Psa 18:25-26</a>; <a href='B:230 33:22'>Psa 33:22</a>). He invites God’s judgment upon himself and others according to their and his works (<a href='B:230 28:4'>Psa 28:4</a>):&nbsp; Frequently he alludes to Saul as “the violent man”- even though David committed his share of violence- and asks judgment upon him (<a href='B:230 18:48'>Psa 18:48</a>). Only those with clean hands and pure heart like himself could have fellowship with God (<a href='B:230 24:3-4'>Psa 24:3-4</a>). Psalms 37 doesn’t indicate any desire to convert the sinners but rather an expectation of their judgment and destruction. God and David laugh at the wicked because their day is coming (<a href='B:230 37:13'>Psa 37:13</a>). There’s no spirit of grace here at all- perhaps that’s why <a href='B:450 12:10'>Zec 12:10</a> specifically says that the spirit of grace will have to be poured out upon the house of David in the last days. This attitude changed after the sin with Bathsheba, but still something of the old self righteousness and judgmental attitudes are to be found in David in Psalms written after that.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>In describing his feelings after the Bathsheba experience, David comments that he was "as a man that hears not [the taunts of others against him], and in whose mouth are no rebukes" (<a href='B:230 38:14'>Psa 38:14</a>). The pre-Bathsheba Psalms present David as a man who was so easily hurt by the taunts of others, and whose mouth was indeed full of rebuke of others. Psalms 37 speaks of the wicked without any apparent interest in their conversion, but rather is there an emphasis upon their condemnation, even a gloating over it, and the [surely incorrect] fantasy that God laughs at the thought of how He will punish the wicked in future (<a href='B:230 37:13'>Psa 37:13</a>).</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The wicked have drawn out the sword and have bent their bow to cast down the poor and needy, to kill those who are upright in the way-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Language used about the oppressors of Judah in exile (<a href='B:290 5:28'>Isa 5:28</a>; <a href='B:290 21:15'>Isa 21:15</a>). David sees uprightness as characteristic of all God's people (<a href='B:230 11:2'>Psa 11:2</a>; <a href='B:230 19:8'>Psa 19:8</a>; <a href='B:230 32:11'>Psa 32:11</a>; <a href='B:230 36:10'>Psa 36:10</a>; <a href='B:230 64:10'>Psa 64:10</a>; <a href='B:230 94:15'>Psa 94:15</a>; <a href='B:230 97:11'>Psa 97:11</a>). He sees the wicked as those who are not upright (<a href='B:230 14:3'>Psa 14:3</a>; <a href='B:230 51:1'>Psa 51:1</a>; <a href='B:230 51:3'>Psa 51:3</a>). But&nbsp; all men, God's people included, are not upright (<a href='B:520 3:12'>Rom 3:12</a>). Like Job, David had to be taught that actually he was failing to see the seriousness of sin; righteousness and acceptability with God is imputed to men by grace through faith, because actually there are none who are upright in heart, apart from God's representative son.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Their sword shall enter into their own heart. Their bows shall be broken-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Language relevant to the death of Absalom. But when David's imprecations against his enemies such as Saul and Absalom came true, he was mortified with grief. We must be careful what we desire, for God reads our desires as prayers. David considers that it is his Divinely given strength which will break the bows (<a href='B:230 18:34'>Psa 18:34</a>).</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Better is a little that the righteous has, than the abundance of many wicked-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The Hebrew seems to mean that the small numbers of the righteous are better than the great numbers of the wicked. David foresaw that even amongst God's people, both of his time and amongst the later exiles, only a minority would be truly spiritual.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For the arms of the wicked shall be broken, but Yahweh upholds the righteous-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As we will see on :24, David feels he is the one who has been 'upheld' despite his sin with Bathsheba. He sees himself therefore as "the righteous", but only because he deeply believed in imputed righteousness.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yahweh knows the days of the perfect. Their inheritance shall be forever-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>To 'know the days' of someone can be read as an idiom for "takes care of" (as GNB). The idea of eternal inheritance alludes to the promises to Abraham. But as the New Testament makes clear, the "seed" died without receiving the fulfilment of the promises; eternal inheritance can only come when the Kingdom is established upon earth. And there was the potential that this could have happened had the exiles been repentant and desirous of participating in such a restored Kingdom; but they weren't, and so the Kingdom promises have been rescheduled and reapplied.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>They shall not be disappointed in the time of evil; in the days of famine they shall be satisfied-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Under the old covenant, famine was not supposed to come if the people were obedient. So the idea is that even when suffering the punishment for sin, God will still show grace and keep His repentant people "alive in famine".</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>But the wicked shall perish, the enemies of Yahweh shall be like the passing beauty of the fields. They will vanish-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'><strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>vanish like smoke-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>LXX "the enemies of the Lord at the moment of their being honoured and exalted have utterly vanished like smoke". This could refer to the destruction of Haman, in the context of the exiles. But consumption into smoke is the language of sacrifice. The sacrifices taught Israel that God especially valued the fat- the best parts of their lives were to be freely offered to Him. But the wicked at judgment day will be as the fat of lambs, consumed upon the altar (<a href='B:230 37:20'>Psa 37:20</a>). We either give our best to the Lord’s service now, or He will ultimately take it from us anyway. Cars, houses, flats, valued jewelry, banknotes stashed away, bank accounts, our innermost emotions, jealousy, love::. we either give them now, or He will take them from us in the day of judgment.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The wicked borrow, and don’t pay back, but the righteous give generously-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The idea may be that the righteous forgive. They give out, whereas the wicked effectively steal.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For such as are blessed by Him shall inherit the land. Those who are cursed by Him shall be cut off-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'> Another allusion to the blessing associated with the Abrahamic promises. We note that the opposite of blessing is the curse of permanent death- not eternal conscious punishment. "Cut off" is the same word for the cutting of the covenant with Abraham (<a href='B:10 15:18'>Gen 15:18</a>). The idiom was to emphasize that those who rejected the covenant would be "cut off" (<a href='B:10 17:14'>Gen 17:14</a>); blessing and life eternal were only available through the covenant.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>A man’s goings are established by Yahweh; He delights in his way-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>If a man prepares his way after God’s principles (<a href='B:140 27:6'>2Ch 27:6</a>; <a href='B:240 4:26'>Pro 4:26</a>), then God will ‘prepare’ that man’s way too (<a href='B:230 37:23'>Psa 37:23</a>; <a href='B:230 119:5'>Psa 119:5</a>), confirming him in the way of escape. God “delights in every detail of their lives” (<a href='B:230 37:23'>Psa 37:23</a>); and the more we perceive that interest, the more we will live the purpose driven life. Yet the tendency is to just assume these gifts from God as what we have almost by right, and that He is willing for us to live the life He has given us without deeply analyzing our choices and decisions; that our talents are things we can use as we wish because they are what life dished up to us. But they have been granted by an eager Father, anxiously watching how we will use them in His &nbsp;service, not our own. Life is a test, a trust, rather than a few decades pursuing our own happiness. We have been made unique, with unique thumbprints, eyes, voices, and each heart beats to a different pattern. And of course all this is reflected in our unique emotional makeuPsa. All these things are given us to fulfill our unique role in the body of Christ- a part only we can play. We have a huge personal responsibility to use our lives for the God who gave them to us. What is made in His image- i:e. our bodies- must be given back to Him.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>When Solomon teaches that God must be allowed to establish or direct our way (<a href='B:240 4:26'>Pro 4:26</a>; <a href='B:240 16:29'>Pro 16:29</a>), he is using the same Hebrew words as in <a href='B:230 37:23'>Psa 37:23</a> and <a href='B:230 119:5'>Psa 119:5</a>, when David says the same. It’s as if he was given God’s truth and yet he never quite made it his very own- he still articulated it in terms of the faith of his fathers. And thus he lost it in the end:&nbsp;</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Though he stumble, he shall not fall, for Yahweh holds him up with His hand-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As this was written at the end of David's life (:25), he had in view his sin with Bathsheba.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I have been young, and now am old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his children begging for bread-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yet the exiles and their children did "beg bread" (s:w. <a href='B:310 1:11'>Lam 1:11</a>). The implication therefore is that they did so because they were not righteous.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>All day long he deals graciously, and lends. His seed is blessed-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>We will always be given enough to give to others- if that is what we want to do. The Lord's parable of the friend at midnight seems to be teaching the same (<a href='B:490 11:5-9'>Luk 11:5-9</a>). This is quite a challenging idea, in an age when masses live on minimum wage. The idea that 'If I get wealthy, I'll be generous' is quite different to God's approach. If we see others' need, and we genuinely wish to meet it, then the resources to meet it will be provided- whether through our own hands or by other means.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Depart from evil, and do good. Live securely forever-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Depart from evil" could be read as an appeal to repentance; and this was especially relevant to the exiles. If they truly repented and did good, then they would receive eternal inheritance of the land. It is the phrase used to describe how Job hated evil (<a href='B:220 1:8'>Job 1:8</a>); and the exiles were bidden follow his pattern.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For Yahweh loves justice, and doesn’t forsake His saints. They are preserved forever-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Eternal preservation is surely appropriate to the idea of eternity at the Lord's return.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>But the children of the wicked shall be cut off-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The wickedness of the wicked is that they influence their children to live in a way which will also merit condemnation.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The righteous shall inherit the land, and live in it forever-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This is in direct allusion to the promises to Abraham, and is quoted by the Lord in <a href='B:470 5:5'>Mat 5:5</a>. I noted on :4-6 that David may have in view 'imputed righteousness' when he speaks of "the righteous". He is writing this after his sin with Bathsheba, from which he had learned that lesson (:25). And yet it is possible that he reverted to his previous black and white view of God's people as divided into sinners and righteous, with no attention paid to the fact that the righteous sin and things are not so black and white.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The mouth of the righteous talks of wisdom, his tongue speaks justice-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The words of the righteous are connected with what is in their heart (:31); a fundamental connection repeated by the Lord in His teaching. The only other parallel between wisdom and justice is found in the description of David's son Solomon (<a href='B:110 3:28'>1Ki 3:28</a>). But I have elsewhere suggested that even this was Solomon merely living out parental expectation, and finally he turned away from the way of wisdom and justice.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The law of his God is in his heart, none of his steps shall slide-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>See on :30. David recognized elsewhere that his steps had slid (<a href='B:230 38:16'>Psa 38:16</a>; <a href='B:230 94:18'>Psa 94:18</a>). But at the end of his life, he reflects that the steps of the righteous don't slip (<a href='B:230 37:25'>Psa 37:25</a>; <a href='B:230 37:31'>Psa 37:31</a>). Perhaps David came to minimize his earlier slipping, especially in the matter of Bathsheba, in his old age. Or perhaps he was able to look back and see that despite temporary sliding of steps, ultimately the steps of the righteous don't slide in the overall path of their life:&nbsp;</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The wicked watches the righteous, and seeks to kill him-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>But the eyes of God also watch the righteous, as David often comments; indeed He "watches the nations" (<a href='B:230 66:7'>Psa 66:7</a>). And His Divine watching seeks to save us. In this contest between God and man, God will ultimately win.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yahweh will not leave him in his hand, nor condemn him when he is judged-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The hand of the wicked does at times triumph over the righteous in this life, as David himself experienced. But the ultimate perspective is that at the last day, God will not condemn the righteous. This is to be the final perspective on all suffering of the righteous at the hand of the wicked.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Wait for Yahweh, and keep His way-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The righteous are to commit their way to Yahweh (:5). But by doing so, their way becomes His way.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>And He will exalt you to inherit the land. When the wicked are cut off, you shall see it-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The point of eternal inheritance of the land was to be at the same time as the righteous see the cutting off of the wicked. This implies the resurrection of both categories amongst God's people to face judgment, and the righteous witnessing the condemnation of the wicked- which will not be to eternal punishment, but to the cutting off in "the second death".</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I have seen the wicked in great power, spreading himself like a green tree in its native soil-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>LXX "like the cedars of Libanus", perhaps a reference to the pride of the kings of Babylon, who are likened in the prophets to a tree being cut down.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>But he passed away, and behold, he was not. Yes, I sought him, but he could not be found-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The language of the passing away of Babylon and all her pomp (<a href='B:340 2:35'>Dan 2:35</a>). This was particular comfort for the exiles.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Note the perfect man, and see the upright, for there is a future for the man of peace-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The Hebrew appears to be similar to the LXX: "Maintain innocence, and behold uprightness: for there is a remnant to the peaceable man". Again this has particular comfort for the exiles, the remnant of Judah who were to be restored to the land- if they were upright.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As for transgressors, they shall be destroyed together. The future of the wicked shall be cut off-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This continues the connection with the images of all Judah's enemies being destroyed together (<a href='B:340 2:35'>Dan 2:35</a>; see on :36).</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>But the salvation of the righteous is from Yahweh; He is their stronghold in the time of trouble-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Although exiled from the stronghold of Zion, Judah would be saved by Yahweh being their stronghold. He could be a stronghold for His people far from Zion, as David learned in his times of exile. Yah's salvation is ultimately Yeshua, the Lord Jesus.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yahweh helps them, and rescues them. He rescues them from the wicked, and saves them, because they have taken refuge in Him- </p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The idea seems to be that they are rescued at some point after they have chosen to take refuge in God. "Saves" is the word commonly used in the restoration prophecies for the salvation of the exiles from Babylon (e:g. <a href='B:290 60:16'>Isa 60:16</a>). But to make that great salvation operational, they needed to consciously take refuge in Yahweh. <a href='B:290 57:13'>Isa 57:13</a> appears to allude to Psalms 37 : "He who puts his trust (s:w:) in Me shall inherit the land".</p><h2></h2>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>A Psalm of David, for a memorial-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Psalms 38 appears to be David's lament of his bad conscience, some time before he makes his confession of Psalms 51. But he wishes his situation then to be remembered, to be memorialized, perhaps because he perceived that so many sinners remain in that limbo position for too long, and need to move forward from a niggle about sin towards the full repentance which David came to. In the context of the exiles, they needed to also make this move; and the same word for "memorial" is used often of how they were intended to "remember" (<a href='B:290 44:21'>Isa 44:21</a>; <a href='B:290 46:8-9'>Isa 46:8-9</a>).</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yahweh, don’t rebuke me in Your wrath, neither chasten me in Your hot displeasure-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The chastening or "discipline" is the word used for David's experiences after the sin with Bathsheba (s:w. <a href='B:230 6:1'>Psa 6:1</a>; <a href='B:230 39:11'>Psa 39:11</a>). David had been open to Nathan's "rebuke" (<a href='B:230 141:5'>Psa 141:5</a>), which was not given in God's wrath so much as in His appeal for David to accept His grace. But this verse is quoted in <a href='B:650 12:5-6'>Heb 12:5-6</a> about all of God’s children, who have to go through David’s basic experience in order to become the accepted sons of God. We do all have to be rebuked and chastened, even if like children, like David, we so fear it.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For Your arrows have pierced me, Your hand presses hard on me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Soon after the sin with Bathsheba, David was struck with an apparently terminal disease. He realized this was from God's hand. His sense of being "pierced" means that the language becomes relevant to the piercing of the Lord Jesus on the cross. The Bathsheba psalms are so often those most relevant to the crucifixion experience; because there the Lord achieved total identity with sinful, condemned humanity. He felt exactly as David did- even though He was personally sinless. Solomon seems to comment upon God's arrows piercing or 'entering' (s:w:) David when he wrote that "A rebuke enters deeper into one who has understanding than a hundred lashes into a fool" (<a href='B:240 17:10'>Pro 17:10</a>). True as this is, Solomon was all the same justifying his father's response to the rebuke of Nathan and the Divine arrows which 'entered deep' to David.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>There is no soundness in my flesh because of Your indignation, neither is there any health in my bones because of my sin-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The same language is used in the description of sinful Judah in <a href='B:290 1:6'>Isa 1:6</a>. David is used as a role model for their repentance.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For my sins have gone over my head; as a heavy burden, they are too heavy for me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>It should be noted that the sin of adultery is not highlighted in Nathan's rebuke of David, but rather that David had " killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and hast taken his wife to be thy wife" . This is twice emphasized in 12:9,10. This is not to say that the sin of weakness, of the moment, was irrelevant in God's sight. But the emphasis on how he had taken Bathsheba as his wife hints that this had been his long term intention, further suggesting that his sin with her was the end result of much prior meditation. This further illuminates the way in which David speaks of his sin with Bathsheba as if it comprised a whole multitude of other sins: " I acknowledged my sin (singular) unto thee:::I said, I will confess my transgressions (plural)" (<a href='B:230 32:5'>Psa 32:5</a> cp. 38:3,4,18). <a href='B:230 25:7'>Psa 25:7</a> also occurs in a&nbsp; Bathsheba context: " Remember not the sins of my youth::." ; as if facing up to his sin with Bathsheba made David face up to sins of years ago, possibly also in a sexual context.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Psalms 38 speaks of how the guilt of his sin weighed so heavily upon him (<a href='B:230 38:4'>Psa 38:4</a> NIV), whereas <a href='B:230 32:5'>Psa 32:5</a> describes how the guilt of sin has now been lifted from him- implying that he wrote Psalms 38 some time after the sin, but before repenting properly. The point is, he didn’t crash completely, he didn’t turn away from God in totality- he was still writing Psalms at the time!&nbsp;</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>We must bear the burden either of our sins (<a href='B:370 2:13'>Amo 2:13</a>; <a href='B:290 58:6'>Isa 58:6</a>; <a href='B:230 38:4'>Psa 38:4</a>) or of the Lord's cross (<a href='B:550 6:4'>Gal 6:4</a> etc:). We will experience either the spiritual warfare of the striving saint (<a href='B:520 7:15-25'>Rom 7:15-25</a>), or the lusts of the flesh warring in our members, eating us up with the insatiability of sin (<a href='B:660 4:1'>Jas 4:1</a>; <a href='B:330 16:28-29'>Eze 16:28-29</a>). Either we will mourn now in repentance (<a href='B:490 6:25'>Luk 6:25</a>; the Greek for " mourn" is often in a repentance context), or we will mourn at the judgment (<a href='B:470 8:12'>Mat 8:12</a> etc:).</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>My wounds are loathsome and corrupt because of my foolishness-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David clearly directly connected his illness with his sin. There was likely no medical truth in this; but God worked through his misunderstanding, just as He did through similar misunderstandings about demons in the first century. We may well enquire whether "foolishness" is not rather a mild term for what he had done (also used in <a href='B:230 69:5'>Psa 69:5</a>); surely "wickedness" would have been more appropriate. "Foolishness" is often used in Proverbs to refer to unwisdom and even silliness. But what David did surely requires more extreme language. We note that David has been quick to use a wide range of harsh adjectives and ideas in describing the wickedness of others like Saul who had tried to murder the innocent. And David had actually done so.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I am pained-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Mine iniquities are gone over mine head: as an heavy burden they are too heavy for me" (<a href='B:230 38:4'>Psa 38:4</a>) was spoken before David's frank confession of Psalms 51. It therefore reveals how David felt swamped by his sense of sin; whilst recognizing it, he couldn't come to terms with explicitly confessing it. Every child of God must have come somewhere near to this feeling. The flesh can deceive us that just recognizing our sin somewhere in our consciousness is all that is needed. The lesson taught by David is that there is the need for frank and total confession; otherwise, the bad conscience will only deepen. "I am pained" (<a href='B:230 38:6'>Psa 38:6</a>) uses Hebrew which is elsewhere translated 'to commit iniquity' (<a href='B:230 106:6'>Psa 106:6</a>), 'to be crooked'. This is David recognizing 'I am a sinner'- but still this did not help him. Specific, uninhibited confession was still not forthcoming.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>And bowed down greatly-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The word can mean 'to humble'; and this is the required response to sin. David was representative of Israel in their sinfulness (s:w. <a href='B:230 107:39'>Psa 107:39</a>); they were intended to follow his path of penitence.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I go mourning all day long-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Evidence of a psychological and emotional breakdown.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For my waist is filled with burning-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>AV "a loathsome disease". Earlier David had used the word in describing himself as "lightly esteemed" (<a href='B:90 18:23'>1Sa 18:23</a>). What had been mere words expressing theoretical humility were now translated into actual ownership. Our expressions of humility likewise are brought into reality by God's hand, often working through our own sins.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>There is no soundness in my body-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The word used for Judah's woeful condition in <a href='B:290 1:6'>Isa 1:6</a>. It should be noted that David/Bathsheba language is used to describe Israel's spiritually fallen state (e:g. <a href='B:230 38:7'>Psa 38:7</a> = <a href='B:290 1:6'>Isa 1:6</a>; <a href='B:230 51:7'>Psa 51:7</a> = <a href='B:290 1:18'>Isa 1:18</a>; <a href='B:230 65:2'>Psa 65:2</a> = <a href='B:290 40:15'>Isa 40:15</a>). David recognized this in <a href='B:230 51:17'>Psa 51:17</a>, where he likens his own state to that of Zion, which also needed to be revived by God's mercy. As David's sin is likened to the killing of a lamb (<a href='B:100 12:4'>2Sa 12:4</a>), so the Jews killed Jesus. The troubles which therefore came upon his kingdom have certain similarities with the events of AD67-70:&nbsp; They were also repeated in the Nazi Holocaust, and will yet be. Israel are yet to fully repent after the pattern of David.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I am faint and severely bruised; I have groaned by reason of the anguish of my heart-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring" (<a href='B:230 32:3'>Psa 32:3</a>) must refer to David's roaring to God in prayer (<a href='B:230 22:1'>Psa 22:1</a>) before&nbsp; David's repentance, whilst keeping silent about his sin. In the same context he laments: "I have roared by reason of the disquietness (bad conscience) of my heart" (<a href='B:230 38:8'>Psa 38:8</a> AV). His very separation from God made him pray to God the more, pleading for some form of spiritual healing. But without realistic confession of sin, such prayer was shouting out words into the darkness. David found that attempting to have a relationship with God in such bad conscience only adds to the pain:&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Lord, all my desire is before You; my groaning is not hidden from You-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>All his desire was for forgiveness and salvation; and this was granted. At the end of his life (<a href='B:230 37:25'>Psa 37:25</a>), David reflected that if we "delight yourself in Yahweh::. He will give you the desires of your heart" (<a href='B:230 37:4'>Psa 37:4</a>). The desires of the heart is paralleled in Psalms 37 with inheriting the land eternally. If this is our greatest desire, we shall receive it. This is a sublime truth. All those who truly love the Lord's appearing as the master passion of their lives- will be acceptable to Him (<a href='B:620 4:8'>2Ti 4:8</a>). This is why the hope of the Kingdom can never be a mere hobby, but is by its very nature the all consuming passion of human life.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>My heart throbs, my strength fails me. As for the light of my eyes, it has also left me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This could refer to heart problems and failing eyesight, perhaps suggesting David had suffered a stroke soon after sinning with Bathsheba. The language however seems tailored by him to allude to Job, whose sufferings he often feels he fellowshiPsa. And this is how we should be- seeing precedent in Biblical characters for all our experiences.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>My lovers and my friends stand aloof from my plague, my kinsmen stand far away-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>It is possible to infer that David and Bathsheba experienced a falling out of love immediately after the incident- as with many cases of adultery and fornication. In contrast to their previous close contact, she had to send to tell him that she was pregnant. In addition, before David's repentance he appears to have suffered with some kind of serious disease soon after it: "My loins are filled with a loathsome (venereal?) disease: and there is no soundness in my flesh" (:7 AV). It is even possible that David became impotent as a result of this; for we get the impression that from this point onwards he took no other wives, he had no more children, and even the fail safe cure for hypothermia didn't seem to mean much to David (<a href='B:110 1:1-4'>1Ki 1:1-4</a>). Therefore "My lovers and my friends stand aloof from my sore" (<a href='B:230 38:11'>Psa 38:11</a>) must refer to some kind of venereal disease. The Hebrew word translated " lovers" definitely refers to carnal love rather than that of friendship. It may be that an intensive plural is being used here- in which case it means 'my one great lover', i:e. Bathsheba. We have commented earlier how Amnon's obsessive love for Tamar was an echo of David's relationship with Bathsheba. There may be a parallel in the way in which afterwards, "Amnon hated her exceedingly; so that the hatred wherewith he hated her was greater than the love wherewith he loved her" (<a href='B:100 13:15'>2Sa 13:15</a>). All this would have been yet another aspect of the emotional trauma which David went through at this time; to fall out of love with the woman for which he had almost thrown away his eternal salvation. And in addition to this, all Israel would have got to know about what had happened- with a fair degree of exaggeration thrown in, we can be sure.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The fact that the Father and Son right now accept us should strengthen against the pain of rejection both from the world we preach to, and from our brethren. Thus in <a href='B:230 38:11-15'>Psa 38:11-15</a> David laments at how rejected he is by all, and yet takes strength from God’s acceptance of him. Our conviction that we are accepted of Him should enable us to overcome the waves of rejection that inevitably accompany the preaching of the Gospel, and which discourage so many would-be preachers. We simply must believe that we will be there. David so often looks forward to the day of judgment with eagerness. David's enthusiasm for the coming of judgment reflected his understanding that it will be a day of the display of Divine mercy.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The Bathsheba Psalms all have special relevance to the Lord on the cross. His lovers, friends and kinsmen stood far off from Him, perhaps in a literal sense, perhaps far away from understanding Him. If Mary wasn't initially at the cross, John's connection between the dividing of the clothes and her being there would suggest that she had made the clothes. In any case, the four women at the cross are surely set up against the four soldiers there- who gambled over the clothes. Perhaps the other women had also had some input into the Lord’s clothing. "But there stood by the cross::." makes the connection between Mary and the clothes. It seems that initially, she wasn't there; He looked for comforters and found none (<a href='B:230 69:20'>Psa 69:20</a> - or does this imply that the oft mentioned spiritual difference between the Lord and His mother meant that He didn't find comfort in her? Or she only came to the cross later?).</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>They also who seek after my life lay snares, those who seek my hurt speak mischievous things, and meditate deceits all day long-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>It seems that there were plots against David immediately after his sin with Bathsheba- although the historical records don't appear to mention them. Bathsheba's grandfather, Ahithophel, later sided with Absalom against David. But the language here is relevant to Saul's persecution. David perhaps rewrote a wilderness Psalm with relevance to his later situation, perceiving that circumstances repeat in the life of the believer, and what he had learnt from one situation was to be applied to later ones in our lives.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>But I, as a deaf man, don’t hear. I am as a mute man who doesn’t open his mouth-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This could refer to how David didn't hear or see the plans to overthrow him- because he didn't want to. Just as Samson chose not to perceive in reality that Delilah was going to betray him despite knowing she would, and as the Lord knew Judas would betray Him, but trusted him as His own familiar friend. David likewise must have known the deceit of Ahithophel and Absalom; but he chose not to see it, for love’s sake. See on <a href='B:230 41:9'>Psa 41:9</a>.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Or we can read this as meaning that he didn't pay attention to the bad things said about him at this time. Maybe he was alluding to how Saul, when likewise criticized by “sons of belial”, “was as though he had been deaf” to their words (<a href='B:90 10:27'>1Sa 10:27</a> RVmg:). He saw the good in Saul, he remembered that one good example he showed- and it empowered him to follow it. </p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yes, I am as a man who doesn’t hear, in whose mouth are no reproofs-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>See on <a href='B:230 51:4'>Psa 51:4</a>. We along with all the righteous ought to “shout for joy” that David really was forgiven (<a href='B:230 32:11'>Psa 32:11</a>)- for there is such hope for us now. David is our example. And yet the intensity of David’s repentance must be ours. He hung his head as one in whose mouth there were no more arguments, hoping only in the Lord’s grace (<a href='B:230 38:14'>Psa 38:14</a> RVmg:). In describing his feelings after the Bathsheba experience, David comments that he was "as a man that hears not [the taunts of others against him], and in whose mouth are no rebukes" (<a href='B:230 38:14'>Psa 38:14</a> AV). The pre-Bathsheba Psalms present David as a man who was so easily hurt by the taunts of others, and whose mouth was indeed full of rebuke of others. </p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For in You, Yahweh, do I hope. You will answer, Lord my God-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David's Psalms written before the sin with Bathsheba reflect a profound sense of God's grace. Now this theoretical awareness is tested in practice. David knows he is guilty of death under the Mosaic law; there is no sacrifice prescribed for his gross sins. And yet he appears so positive of being answered by God. It's wonderful how God uses sin and all manner of human dysfunction in order to help us actualize our previously theoretical understandings of His love and grace.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For I said, Don’t let them gloat over me, or exalt themselves over me when my foot slips-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David recognized that his steps had slid (<a href='B:230 38:16'>Psa 38:16</a>; <a href='B:230 94:18'>Psa 94:18</a>). But at the end of his life, he reflects that the steps of the righteous don't slip (<a href='B:230 37:25'>Psa 37:25</a>; <a href='B:230 37:31'>Psa 37:31</a>). Perhaps David came to minimize his earlier slipping, especially in the matter of Bathsheba, in his old age. Or perhaps he was able to look back and see that despite temporary sliding of steps, ultimately the steps of the righteous don't slide in the overall path of their life:&nbsp;</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For I am ready to fall; my pain is continually before me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"In mine adversity (Heb. tsela, limping) they rejoiced" (<a href='B:230 35:15'>Psa 35:15</a>), "I am ready to halt (tsela) and my sorrow (repentance) is continually before me" (<a href='B:230 38:17'>Psa 38:17</a>) uses a word which occurs elsewhere mainly in the context of Jacob limping after the night of wrestling (<a href='B:10 32:31'>Gen 32:31</a>). This is one of many of David’s allusions to Jacob.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Many of the Psalms understood by the Jews as relevant to the Nazi holocaust are Bathsheba Psalms. “Out of the depths” they cried like David; and at the entrance to Bergen-Belsen it stands written: “My sorrow is continually before me” (<a href='B:230 38:17'>Psa 38:17</a>), in recognition of having received punishment for sin [note how these kind of plaques contain no trace of hatred or calling for Divine retribution upon the persecutors]. See on <a href='B:540 7:7-11'>2Co 7:7-11</a>:&nbsp;</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David's genuine sorrow for his sin during this period is still a powerful exhortation to us, whose every sin must be repented of and forgiven after the pattern of David's repentance. The extent of his sorrow is heavily stressed: "My sorrow is continually before me::. my sin is ever before me" (<a href='B:230 38:17'>Psa 38:17</a>; <a href='B:230 51:3'>Psa 51:3</a>). How much sorrow is there for our sins? Have the years mellowed our terror at sin? Things which once appalled us can so easily become sins of habit, the real sorrow we once experienced on committing them can be watered down to just a vague tickle of conscience. The significance of David's sin and repentance being held up as an example of our own should be a good antidote against such problems. The chilling thing is, despite all this awareness of his sin during the nine month period, when he was told the parable by Nathan- he just didn’t see it. Every part of the story had such relevant application, but David was blinded to it. He knew he had sinned, but this was only on a surface level. “Thou art the man” was still news to him. We have commented that “I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek thy servant; for I do not forget thy commandments” (<a href='B:230 119:176'>Psa 119:176</a>) was likely written by David with his mind on his follies relating to Bathsheba. The point, is in the ‘lost’ state, he still remembered the commandments. He didn’t turn his back on God; and neither do we, in our semi-spiritual unspirituality. We can likewise be blinded to true, personal understanding of God’s message because of our refusal to truly repent. Corinth and the Hebrews could not understand the strong meet of the word because they were divided; their divisiveness hindered their understanding. Husbands and wives find their prayers hindered unless they are themselves united:&nbsp;</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For I will declare my iniquity, I will be sorry for my sin-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David through his Psalms was publically declaring his sin. "For I will declare mine iniquity; I will be sorry for my sin" (<a href='B:230 38:17-18'>Psa 38:17-18</a>) may mean that David was so swamped by the trauma of the sin and the distancing from God which he was experiencing, that he could only vaguely resolve that some time in the future he would get down to a serious prayer session, in which he would analyze and confess his sin. But instead he goes on desperately pleading "O my God, be not far from me. Make haste to help me::.". Our own sins so often gives us a nagging conscience; not because we are consciously trying to pretend that we never sinned, but because we will not make the effort to overcome the circumstances which stop us making the mental effort necessary to put ourselves straight with God:&nbsp;&nbsp;</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Declare" is the word used for David's declaration of praise after his forgiveness concerning Bathsheba (<a href='B:230 51:15'>Psa 51:15</a>). The "truth" which David declared after his forgiveness (<a href='B:230 30:9'>Psa 30:9</a>) was the ultimate truth, of God's forgiveness of him by grace; a 'declaring' of his sin (<a href='B:230 38:18'>Psa 38:18</a> s:w:) and God's forgiveness.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>But my enemies are vigorous and many. Those who hate me without reason are numerous-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Without reason" reflects again David's deep sense of injustice (see on <a href='B:230 35:7'>Psa 35:7</a>). He uses the word for "false witness", as if they were breaking one of the ten commandments; and he uses it often, heaping condemnation upon any who dare lie / bear false witness about him (<a href='B:230 38:19'>Psa 38:19</a>; <a href='B:230 52:3'>Psa 52:3</a>; <a href='B:230 63:11'>Psa 63:11</a>; <a href='B:230 101:7'>Psa 101:7</a>; <a href='B:230 119:29'>Psa 119:29</a>; <a href='B:230 119:69'>Psa 119:69</a>; <a href='B:230 119:86'>Psa 119:86</a>; <a href='B:230 119:118'>Psa 119:118</a>; <a href='B:230 120:2'>Psa 120:2</a>; <a href='B:230 144:8'>Psa 144:8</a>; <a href='B:230 144:11'>Psa 144:11</a>). And yet David lied and deceived in order to get Uriah killed so that he could take his wife for himself. Surely reflection upon that sin made him realize that his zeal to condemn dishonesty was at best misplaced; to lament it is one thing, but David was to be taught that he had himself done the very thing he so condemned. We sense that he has not yet come to full recognition of the enormity of his sin; for to complain that his sufferings are "without reason" is inappropriate given what he did.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>They who also render evil for good are adversaries to me, because I follow what is good-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As noted on :19, we sense that David's sense of outrage and injustice, insisting he has done "good", is inappropriate considering the enormity of his sin. He still has to come to a fullness of repentance; and indeed it could be argued from some of the post Bathsheba Psalms that he perhaps failed to have the depth of repentance he might have done, or at least rationalized his behaviour over the years.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Don’t forsake me, Yahweh. My God, don’t be far from me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David prayed at the time of the Bathsheba incident for God not be far from him nor forsake him (<a href='B:230 38:21'>Psa 38:21</a>). But in <a href='B:230 22:1'>Psa 22:1</a>; <a href='B:230 22:19'>Psa 22:19</a> he feels he has been forsaken and that God is "far off". But Psalms 22 is absolutely the feelings of the Lord Jesus on the cross- because He was so intensely identified with sinners. I noted on <a href='B:230 22:3'>Psa 22:3</a> that the historical context of that Psalm was the sin with Bathsheba. The plea for God not to "be far from me" is common (<a href='B:230 22:11'>Psa 22:11</a>; <a href='B:230 22:19'>Psa 22:19</a>; <a href='B:230 35:22'>Psa 35:22</a>; <a href='B:230 38:21'>Psa 38:21</a>; <a href='B:230 71:12'>Psa 71:12</a>). The emphasis perhaps is to be placed upon David not wanting God to be far from him, seeing that he felt others were 'far' from him (s:w. <a href='B:230 88:8'>Psa 88:8</a>; <a href='B:230 88:18'>Psa 88:18</a>). He accepted his social and psychological isolation from others, but he didn't want God to be likewise far off from him. In the context of the exiles, God was willing to not be 'far off' from the exiles if they repented (<a href='B:290 46:13'>Isa 46:13</a>).</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Hurry to help me, Lord, my salvation- </p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David repeatedly asks God to "hurry to help me" (<a href='B:230 22:19'>Psa 22:19</a>; <a href='B:230 38:22'>Psa 38:22</a>; <a href='B:230 40:13'>Psa 40:13</a>; <a href='B:230 70:1'>Psa 70:1</a>; <a href='B:230 70:5'>Psa 70:5</a>; <a href='B:230 141:1'>Psa 141:1</a>). </p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>But David had hurried (s:w:) to be obedient to God, always wanting to 'say yes straight away' (<a href='B:230 119:60'>Psa 119:60</a>). Our response to God's voice is therefore related to His response to our voice; if His words abide in us, then we experience positive experience in answered prayer (<a href='B:500 15:7'>Joh 15:7</a>).</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Psalms 38 appears to be David's lament of his bad conscience, some time before he makes his confession of Psalms 51. Psalms 38 shows that David certainly had some faith in God before his confession: "Forsake me not::. make haste to help&nbsp; me, O Lord my salvation" (<a href='B:230 38:22'>Psa 38:22</a>). Yet it is possible to intensely believe in the mercy of God, His ability to save, and yet not have the real faith- which is to believe that this mercy and salvation really can still apply to us personally. Thus he prays "Make me to hear joy and gladness" (<a href='B:230 51:8'>Psa 51:8</a>). His introspective world of sin and self-hate found joy a paradigm impossible to relate to; as with mercy and salvation, he knew spiritual joy existed, but seemed unable to make this apply to him personally:&nbsp;&nbsp;</p><h2></h2>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For the Chief Musician. For Jeduthun. A Psalm of David-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The Psalm is similar to Psalms 38, 40, and they all appear to be David's reflections upon his sin with Bathsheba and his sufferings and resolutions which arose from that. Jeduthun was perhaps "the chief musician" who was to perform the Psalms or teach them to others ().</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I said, I will watch my ways, so that I don’t sin with my tongue. I will keep my mouth with a bridle while the wicked is before me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Through&nbsp; David's repentance he obviously learnt from his sin, as we can from each of ours. <a href='B:230 32:9'>Psa 32:9</a> comments that men ought to learn from David’s example, and not be as horses who must have their mouths kept in with a bridle. In <a href='B:230 39:1'>Psa 39:1</a> David reminisces how he had earlier said [before his sin with Bathsheba] that he would stop himself sinning by restraining himself with a bridle. He learnt that sheer will power is not enough; blind resolution to simply ‘obey’ will fail. Instead, it is a living relationship with the Father, a deep sense of His glory, that creates an environment of life where we just won’t do what David did with Bathsheba. This was what he learnt, and this is what he was so eager to pass on to us in the post-Bathsheba Psalms of&nbsp; David's repentance.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I was mute with silence; I held my peace, even from good. My sorrow was stirred-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This clearly connects with <a href='B:230 38:14'>Psa 38:14</a>. He hung his head as one in whose mouth there were no more arguments, hoping only in the Lord’s grace (<a href='B:230 38:14'>Psa 38:14</a> RVmg:). In describing his feelings after the Bathsheba experience, David comments that he was "as a man that hears not [the taunts of others against him], and in whose mouth are no rebukes" (<a href='B:230 38:14'>Psa 38:14</a> AV), as if he was "mute". The pre-Bathsheba Psalms present David as a man who was so easily hurt by the taunts of others, and whose mouth was indeed full of rebuke of others. &nbsp;Or we can read this as meaning that he didn't pay attention to the bad things said about him at this time. Maybe he was alluding to how Saul, when likewise criticized by “sons of belial”, "held his peace" and “was as though he had been deaf” to their words (<a href='B:90 10:27'>1Sa 10:27</a> RVmg:). He saw the good in Saul, he remembered that one good example he showed- and it empowered him to follow it. </p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>My heart was hot within me. While I meditated, the fire burned: I spoke with my tongue-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This again alludes to some of the scenes in the book of Job, where the friends and Elihu feel an answer brewing up within them, and eventually they let their tongues speak out the thoughts which were boiling up within them.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yahweh, show me my end, what is the measure of my days. Let me know how frail I am-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David was so sick and depressed that he felt he only had some days left to live, and he asked to be told how long he had left. Or we could read somewhat deeper; as if David recognized his sin, but had not yet come to the full repentance required (see on <a href='B:230 38:1'>Psa 38:1</a>). He realized that, and asked to be taught his frailty.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Behold, you have made my days mere handbreadths. My lifetime is as nothing before you. Surely every man stands as a breath. Selah-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This is effectively the answer to his prayer in :4 to be shown his frailty. So often in the Psalms, the answer appears to come during the prayer. I doubt this was because of a flash of supernatural revelation. Rather, as is so true in our own prayer lives, the answers to our questions become apparent within our prayer, as we pray on and remain in God's presence.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Surely every man walks like a shadow. Surely they busy themselves in vain. He heaps up, and doesn’t know who shall gather-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The references to "every man" (:5 also) are typical of the Bathsheba Psalms; David on one hand could be accused of rationalizing his great sins by arguing that he is only human, like other men. Or we could more generously argue that he saw the grace poured out to him as programmatic for all men, seeing all are serious sinners.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>In Ecclesiastes, Solomon comes to conclude that although he had heaped up riches, his life was vanity- indeed, all is vanity, because one doesn’t know how wise will be the person to whom one leaves their life achievements. And yet one of David’s songs which Solomon must have sung went like this: “Surely every man walketh in a vain shew: surely they are disquieted in vain: he heapeth up riches, and knoweth not who shall gather them” (<a href='B:230 39:6'>Psa 39:6</a>). Solomon didn’t think about the implications of the words of his dad’s hymns. It took him&nbsp; a lifetime to learn the truth of them for himself, and by then it was too late (so it seems to me). So with us, to learn and heed wisdom rather than have to learn it all again by experience- this is one of the hardest things for us, especially if our background was in a home of truth and wisdom.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Now, Lord, what do I wait for? My hope is in You-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David's hope was simply "You", God; by which he surely means, relationship with God restored. David was waiting for nothing else apart from that. This is the equivalent thought to that in <a href='B:230 38:9'>Psa 38:9</a> "Lord, all my desire is before You; my groaning is not hidden from You". All his desire was for forgiveness and salvation; and this was granted. At the end of his life (<a href='B:230 37:25'>Psa 37:25</a>), David reflected that if we "delight yourself in Yahweh::. He will give you the desires of your heart" (<a href='B:230 37:4'>Psa 37:4</a>). The desires of the heart is paralleled in Psalms 37 with inheriting the land eternally. If this is our greatest desire, we shall receive it. This is a sublime truth. All those who truly love the Lord's appearing as the master passion of their lives- will be acceptable to Him (<a href='B:620 4:8'>2Ti 4:8</a>). This is why the hope of the Kingdom can never be a mere hobby, but is by its very nature the all consuming passion of human life.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Deliver me from all my transgressions-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>At this point, David doesn't feel totally delivered from his sins. He has still to come to the total assurance of repentance and forgiveness, whereby in later Psalms he can describe himself as "righteous", so confident was he of imputed righteousness by faith through grace. "Redeem / deliver me from the hand::." is again a quotation from Jacob's words when he found his relative Esau barring his path back home (<a href='B:10 32:11'>Gen 32:11</a>; <a href='B:10 32:30'>Gen 32:30</a>). And the word is used of David's desire for deliverance from Saul (<a href='B:90 26:24'>1Sa 26:24</a>); and yet this was a redemption unappreciated by him as it ought to have been (<a href='B:100 12:7'>2Sa 12:7</a>). Finally David recognized that this prayer was answered (<a href='B:100 22:18'>2Sa 22:18</a>; <a href='B:100 22:49'>2Sa 22:49</a>). As David had earlier prayed for redemption / deliverance from Saul and his enemies (<a href='B:230 31:15'>Psa 31:15</a>; <a href='B:230 59:1'>Psa 59:1</a>; <a href='B:230 144:7'>Psa 144:7</a>), he would later pray for redemption / deliverance from his sins (<a href='B:230 39:8'>Psa 39:8</a>; <a href='B:230 79:9'>Psa 79:9</a>).</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Don’t make me the reproach of the foolish-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Despite claiming to have forgiveness as his only hope and desire (see on :7), his fear of shame before others clearly remains.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I was mute. I didn’t open my mouth, because You did it-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>See on :2. Another explanation of his silence could be to how David didn't hear or see the plans to overthrow him- because he didn't want to. Just as Samson chose not to perceive in reality that Delilah was going to betray him despite knowing she would, and as the Lord knew Judas would betray Him, but trusted him as His own familiar friend. David likewise must have known the deceit of Ahithophel and Absalom; but he chose not to see it, for love’s sake. See on <a href='B:230 41:9'>Psa 41:9</a>.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Remove Your scourge away from me; I am overcome by the blow of Your hand-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Remove" is the word used for how violence would never depart from David because of his sin with Bathsheba (<a href='B:100 12:10'>2Sa 12:10</a>). David prayed for this to "depart" but it never did. David was open to the possibility that through prayer, God can remove the consequences of sin in this life; but such prayer is not always answered. But the "scourge" more comfortably refers to David's illness. It has been observed that the Psalms contain several usages of language which is specifically related to leprosy. It could be that David was struck with some form of leprosy after the sin. See on :11.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>When You rebuke and correct man for iniquity, You consume his days like a moth-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The correcting or "discipline" is the word used for David's experiences after the sin with Bathsheba (s:w. <a href='B:230 6:1'>Psa 6:1</a>; <a href='B:230 38:1'>Psa 38:1</a>; <a href='B:230 39:11'>Psa 39:11</a>). “I was dumb, I opened not my mouth: because thou didst it::. when thou with rebukes dost correct man for iniquity, thou makest his beauty to consume away like a moth” (<a href='B:230 39:9'>Psa 39:9</a>; <a href='B:230 39:11'>Psa 39:11</a>) may all suggest David suffered some kind of stroke, leaving him dumb and without his legendary beauty. In all this he was brought to know the spirit of Christ crucified, in whom there was no beauty that he should be desired, and who was dumb as a lamb before her shearers. The links between the Bathsheba Psalms about&nbsp; David's repentance and the crucifixion are copious. The Lord on the cross came to know the feelings of David after his sin, He felt a leprous sinner although He never committed sin, so that even when we sin we are not in that sense separated from our Lord. He even then has a fellow feeling with every failure:&nbsp;&nbsp;</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Surely every man is but a breath. Selah-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Constantly in the Bathsheba Psalms, David sees his experience as that of every man. The same radical grace is available to us all. The "Selah" in this Psalm is clearly the equivalent of breaking the Psalm into stanzas, even if they are of differing lengths; in this Psalm the divisions are clearly marked by the "Selah". From :1-5, then :6-11, and now :12 to the end.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Hear my prayer, Yahweh, and give ear to my cry. Don’t be silent at my tears-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Who we are as persons is effectively our prayer and plea to God. This conception of prayer explains why often weeping, crying, waiting, meditating etc. are spoken of as "prayer", although there was no specific verbalizing of requests (<a href='B:230 5:1-2'>Psa 5:1-2</a>; <a href='B:230 6:8'>Psa 6:8</a>; <a href='B:230 18:1-3'>Psa 18:1-3</a>; <a href='B:230 18:6'>Psa 18:6</a>; <a href='B:230 40:1'>Psa 40:1</a>; <a href='B:230 42:8'>Psa 42:8</a>; <a href='B:230 64:1'>Psa 64:1</a> Heb:; 65:1,2; 66:17-20; <a href='B:450 8:22'>Zec 8:22</a>). The association between prayer and weeping is especially common: <a href='B:90 1:10'>1Sa 1:10</a>; <a href='B:230 39:12'>Psa 39:12</a>; <a href='B:230 55:1-2'>Psa 55:1-2</a>; <a href='B:500 11:41-42'>Joh 11:41-42</a>; <a href='B:650 5:7'>Heb 5:7</a>, especially in the Lord's life and the Messianic Psalms. "The Lord hath heard the voice of my weeping. The Lord hath heard my supplication; the Lord will receive my prayer" (<a href='B:230 6:8-9'>Psa 6:8-9</a>) crystallizes the point.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For I am a stranger with You, a foreigner, as all my fathers were-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Again David pleads his connection with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He too has had no continuing city, has been treated as a foreigner, and thereby he feels he is one of the seed of Abraham, and appeals for the same grace to be shown to him what had been shown to the fathers.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Oh spare me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As David respected God's words (<a href='B:230 119:117'>Psa 119:117</a>), so he asks God to spare or respect him (s:w:). This is not to be read as meaning that Bible study assures a man of salvation; but rather that there is a mutuality in relationship between God and man. Our respect of His words is reflected in His saving respect of us.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>That I may recover strength, before I go away, and exist no more- Clearly enough, David saw death as unconsciousness and non-existence; rather than envisaging an immortal soul going to heaven after death.</p><h2></h2>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The Psalm is similar to Psalms 38, 39 [and parts of it are repeated in Psalms 70], and they all appear to be David's reflections upon his sin with Bathsheba and his sufferings and resolutions which arose from that. Jeduthun was perhaps "the chief musician" (<a href='B:230 39:1'>Psa 39:1</a>) who was to perform the Psalms or teach them to others (1 Chron. 16:41,42,44; 25:3-6).</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I waited patiently for Yahweh. He turned to me, and heard my cry-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David now emerges from all his desperate prayers in Psalms 38, 39 whilst sick after the sin with Bathsheba. He triumphs in total rescue from the situation because he presumably was feeling better. But we know that the consequences of the sin were to continue for him. His cry was not completely heard, and his cries of the previous two Psalms were hardly 'waiting patiently for Yahweh'. Like us, he imagines total answer to prayer when in fact things are not that simple. And he has failed in appreciating that the essential desire he had was for forgiveness (see on <a href='B:230 38:9'>Psa 38:9</a>; <a href='B:230 39:7'>Psa 39:7</a>). He recognizes later in this Psalm that the consequences of his sin continue, and he asks for them also to be removed, despite Nathan's words to him to the effect that they would continue. See on :17.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>He brought me up also out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay. He set my feet on a rock, and gave me a firm place to stand-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>He likens himself to Joseph in the pit, who was saved from it. But Joseph was innocent; David wasn't. And again we get a hint that his repentance was not as total as it might have been. His later Psalms continue to present himself as righteous and suffering "without a cause". When there was a cause.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>He has put a new song in my mouth, even praise to our God-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'><a href='B:290 42:9-10'>Isa 42:9-10</a> says that we sing the “new song” now, because we sing / meditate of the “new things” which will be in the Kingdom. In that day, we will “sing a new song” (<a href='B:730 5:9'>Rev 5:9</a>; <a href='B:730 14:3'>Rev 14:3</a>). And yet this is undoubtedly picking up on the way in which we can now sing the ‘new song’, every morning (<a href='B:230 33:3'>Psa 33:3</a>; <a href='B:230 40:3'>Psa 40:3</a>; <a href='B:230 96:1'>Psa 96:1</a>; <a href='B:230 98:1'>Psa 98:1</a>; <a href='B:230 144:9'>Psa 144:9</a>; <a href='B:230 149:1'>Psa 149:1</a>). This was how David felt after receiving God's grace over the Bathsheba incidents. Likewise, all things will be made new at the Lord’s coming (<a href='B:730 21:5'>Rev 21:5</a>), and yet those in whom the new creation is worked out already have all things made new in their spiritual experience (<a href='B:540 5:17-18'>2Co 5:17-18</a>). The life that the Lord Jesus had and now lives is the essence of the Kingdom life. Who He was and is, this is the definition of the Kingdom life. It’s why one of His titles is “the kingdom of God” (<a href='B:490 17:21'>Luk 17:21</a>). And it’s why it can be said that we ‘have’ eternal life now, in that we can live the essence of the life we will eternally live, right now.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Even in the Old Testament, the idea of living in a spirit of newness of life is to be found. David six times invites us to sing with him “a new song” (<a href='B:230 33:3'>Psa 33:3</a>; <a href='B:230 40:3'>Psa 40:3</a>; <a href='B:230 96:1'>Psa 96:1</a>; <a href='B:230 98:1'>Psa 98:1</a>; <a href='B:230 144:9'>Psa 144:9</a>; <a href='B:230 149:1'>Psa 149:1</a> cp. <a href='B:290 42:10'>Isa 42:10</a>). Invariably these songs are associated with the experience of God’s redemption (cp. <a href='B:730 5:9'>Rev 5:9</a>). Obviously those ‘new songs’ were intended to be repeatedly sung. Our regular experience of forgiveness and redemption should urge us onwards in the spirit of ‘newness of life’. Like Paul we die daily with the Lord, and the power of His resurrection life likewise daily breaks out in us.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David felt able to praise God despite having many of his prayers and issues still unanswered (:14-17). The experience of forgiveness was enough for him, as it should be for us.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in Yahweh-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Again we see David convinced that his judgment and forgiveness would lead others to trust in God's grace, just as he had done. This is critical in coping with suffering- to perceive that whatever we suffer is not simply for ourselves, but so that we might share the comfort we receive with others likewise suffering (<a href='B:540 1:4-7'>2Co 1:4-7</a>). This was why David wrote these Psalms and handed them to the chief musician for mass distribution (see on :1).</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Blessed is the man who makes Yahweh his trust and doesn’t respect the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Even in apparent contrition and joy at grace received, David seems unable to rejoice in it without a sideways swipe at others. He considers his enemies proud, and to be serving idols- for that is the sense of "turn aside to lies". And indeed idolatry was prevalent in Israel, and amongst David's enemies. Again we have the hint that his repentance was not as thoroughgoing as we might have expected.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Many, Yahweh my God, are the wonderful works which You have done, and Your thoughts which are toward us. They can’t be declared back to You. If I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yet through these Psalms, David is indeed declaring God's grace to him (see on :10). But he says he does so with a great sense of inadequacy; for he cannot render back to God according to the grace shown him. Hezekiah is condemned for this (<a href='B:140 32:25'>2Ch 32:25</a>). And yet David admits this is how man is, faced with the extent of God's grace to him. We have here another example of how two men may do the same thing [here, not rendering back according to God's grace], and yet be judged differently according to their attitude of mind.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Sacrifice and offering You didn’t desire. You have digged my ears. You have not required burnt offering and sin offering-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David was aware that God didn't really want sacrifice, or else he would so eagerly have offered it (<a href='B:230 51:16-17'>Psa 51:16-17</a>). But there were no sacrifices prescribed for his sins of adultery and murder. Instead, David perceived that what God wanted in essence was a broken and contrite spirit. The Bathsheba incident was programmatic for David's understanding of God, and his prayers and psalms subsequently can be expected to have constant allusion back to it. We meet the same idea of God not ultimately wanting sacrifice in <a href='B:230 40:6-9'>Psa 40:6-9</a>: "Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire [but instead] mine ears hast thou opened [Heb. 'digged'- a reference to a servant being permanently committed as a slave to his master]: burnt offering and sin offering hast thou not required. Then said I, Lo, I come::. to do thy will::. thy law is within my heart". In <a href='B:230 51:17'>Psa 51:17</a>, David had reasoned that instead of sacrifice, God wanted a heart that was broken and contrite. Here he reflects that instead of sacrifice, God wants a heart that has the law of God within it. This ultimately is the effect of God's law being in our heart- it creates a broken and contrite heart. But how? In the experience of most of us, the law does this through convicting us of our inability to keep the it. And so we see how guilt and grace work so seamlessly together. David's broken heart was a heart which knew he had sinned, sinned irreversibly, and condemned himself. But this, he perceived, was the result of God's law being within his heart. But the words of <a href='B:230 40:6-9'>Psa 40:6-9</a> are applied in the New Testament to the Lord's death upon the cross. What's the connection, and what's the lesson? In essence, through David's experience of sin, and the work of God's law upon his heart, he came through that sin to have the very mind of the Lord Jesus as He hung upon the cross, matchless and spotless in His perfection, as the Lamb for sinners slain. Again and again we see the lesson taught- that God works through human sin, in this case, in order to bring us to know the very mind of Christ in His finest hour of glory and spiritual conquest. We must not only let God's word work its way in us; but we need to recognize when dealing with other sinners that God likewise is working with them. He doesn't shrug and walk away from sin; He earnestly seeks to use our experience of it to bring us closer unto Himself.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As noted on <a href='B:230 20:3'>Psa 20:3</a>, success in war and answer to prayer was thought to depend upon the offering of sacrifice. After the sin with Bathsheba, David now matures in his understanding- that salvation and God's operation with His people is by grace and not because He desired sacrifice (<a href='B:230 40:6'>Psa 40:6</a>; <a href='B:230 51:16-17'>Psa 51:16-17</a>).</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This passage is quoted of the Lord Jesus in <a href='B:650 10:5-12'>Heb 10:5-12</a>. It was the Lord's love of the word which made Him endure the cross and obtain that great salvation, both for Himself and for us. His crucifixion was likened to His ear (His hearing of the word) being nailed to an upright piece of wood (cp. the cross; <a href='B:20 21:6'>Exo 21:6</a> = <a href='B:230 40:6-8'>Psa 40:6-8</a> = <a href='B:650 10:5-12'>Heb 10:5-12</a>):&nbsp;&nbsp;Paul perceives that firstly, there was the statement that God did not desire animal sacrifices of themselves in order to remove sin; and secondly, the Lord Jesus came to do God's will, in a way which animals simply could not do. This division into first and second is pressed into a similarity with the first and second covenants, as noted on <a href='B:650 9:1'>Heb 9:1</a>. God's desire was that sacrifice should be offered under the Old Covenant, but this could not take away sin of itself. What He desired far more ['not A but B' can mean 'not so much A as B'] was the sacrifice of the One who did His will perfectly.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"You have digged my ears" is quoted differently in <a href='B:650 10:5'>Heb 10:5</a> as "a body did You prepare for me". God did want sacrifices, but not for the sins David had committed concerning Uriah and Bathsheba. The Greek word "body" is also translated "slave" (<a href='B:730 18:13'>Rev 18:13</a>). The idea cannot be that a body was prepared on earth, and some Divine Spirit incarnated it and the body became known as 'Jesus of Nazareth'. As noted above, the primary reference of the Psalms 40 quotation is to David after his sin with Bathsheba reflecting that sacrifices were not appropriate, and all he could do was to offer himself as the humble servant of Yahweh for the rest of his days. In any case, reading this as meaning that the 'Spirit Jesus' came down from Heaven and lived inside a specially prepared body is reading too much in to the words. Jesus began as an egg within Mary, which divided and re-divided until it became a fetus, then a child and thence "the man Christ Jesus". Jesus 'was' the body; He didn't somehow enter into a body which was prepared somewhere on earth. I therefore suggest that we read "body" as "slave" or "servant". And this is in fact what the Hebrew text implies in Psalms 40; Paul is quoting here from the Septuagint, but the Hebrew reads: "My ears You have digged / bored" (<a href='B:230 40:6'>Psa 40:6</a>). The allusion is to how a servant could choose to remain within his master's house as a permanent slave because he so loved his wife and family and his master; and in this case his ear was bored through and nailed to an upright piece of wood (<a href='B:20 21:6'>Exo 21:6</a>). This clearly hinted at the crucifixion. The Lord Jesus was the slave who willingly decided to devote Himself permanently to the service of the Master's household, demonstrating it by His crucifixion; His ministry for us is therefore eternal, unlike that of the Levitical priests. Paul nearly always quotes the Septuagint rather than the Masoretic text, but the sense here is essentially the same, although the readings differ. The idea is that God didn't want dead animals, but a totally dedicated servant / slave who would perfectly do His will and devote himself to the permanent service of His household. And that person was the Lord Jesus, typified by the repentant David. Php_2:7-8 along with the prophecies of the suffering servant makes it clear that the Lord was supremely a slave / servant in His death on the cross. </p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Then I said, Behold, I have come-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>We must remember that these words were first spoken and felt by David, reflecting upon God's grace which he received after his sin with Bathsheba; and his desire to respond to that grace practically. Although they are applied to the Lord Jesus in <a href='B:650 10:5-12'>Heb 10:5-12</a>, it would be a totally false step of logic to assume that "I come::." means that the Lord Jesus 'came' from heaven to earth at His birth or supposed 'incarnation'. That is clearly not what David intended when he spoke these words about himself.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The quotation from Psalms 40 is of words first thought and spoken by David in reflecting that there was no sacrifice which could be offered to deal with his sin in effectively murdering Uriah and committing adultery. All he could offer God was a broken heart, and a desire to humbly serve Him in whatever days he might be given by grace. The Bathsheba Psalms all have further reference to the attitude of the Lord Jesus on the cross; the brokenness of David at that time, physically and psychologically, pointed forward to that of the Lord in His time of dying. The purpose of this is to teach us to what extent the Lord Jesus identified with hopelessly fallen man especially at the time of His dying; whilst Himself never having sinned. The reference to David is evidence enough that the words of this passage do not demand an incarnation of some Divine Spirit into a body waiting on earth to receive it, as Trinitarians claim. The language of Psalms 40 originally applied to David's feelings after his sin with Bathsheba. It is interpreted as being appropriate to the Lord's feelings when He "came into the world".</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Came into" in <a href='B:650 10:5'>Heb 10:5</a> is the very word which has been used in that section of Hebrews about the Lord's coming into the Most Holy, representing Heaven itself (<a href='B:650 6:20'>Heb 6:20</a>; <a href='B:650 9:12'>Heb 9:12</a>; <a href='B:650 9:24-25'>Heb 9:24-25</a>). The reference could be to the Lord's beginning of His priesthood in Heaven, rather than having any reference to His birth or death on earth. But "into the world" is the phrase so often used in John's Gospel for the Father sending His Son into the world at the start of His ministry at age 30 [not necessarily at His birth]. And the same phrase "came into the world" is used of how "I am come a light into the world" (<a href='B:500 12:46'>Joh 12:46</a>) and how the Lord "came into the world that I should bear witness unto the truth" (<a href='B:500 18:37'>Joh 18:37</a>). That witness began to be given at age 30, which was when the Lord "came into the [Jewish] world". "The world" in John's Gospel nearly always refers to the Jewish world, as it does in this context in <a href='B:650 9:26'>Heb 9:26</a>; and the Lord came into that world when His ministry to them began at age 30. We would therefore interpret this as meaning that the Lord began His ministry with the understanding that God had never wanted the animal sacrifices of themselves, but rather required a representative human being to perfectly do God's will. And this He dedicated Himself to doing in the ministry which culminated in the final doing of God's will by dying on the cross. The death of the cross is so often spoken of as the Father's "will":&nbsp;</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>It is written about me throughout the book in the scroll-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David understood that the law of Moses which condemned him actually spoke (between the lines) about desperate sinners like himself who were condemned by that law. Within that same law were continual hints of God's grace outside of that law. And these words came to comfortably apply to the Lord Jesus in that He was foretold through the Old Testament.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I delight to do Your will, my God. Yes, Your law is within my heart-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David knew he was condemned by the law as an adulterer and murderer. And yet he was confident of acceptance in that the spirit of the law was truly in his heart, as Psalms 119 demonstrates. These words naturally came true in the Lord Jesus to a far greater extent.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The will of God is specifically associated with the Lord's death on the cross (e:g. <a href='B:470 26:39'>Mat 26:39</a>). The entire scroll of the Pentateuch [the "roll of the book" known to David at the time of Psalms 40] implied the death of a perfect human sacrifice who would complete God's will for human salvation in totality. And Paul is applying these thoughts of David to the Lord Jesus as He began His ministry [or perhaps specifically when He died, or when He began His priestly service on entering Heaven; see on :5].</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This is quoted and interpreted in <a href='B:650 10:9'>Heb 10:9</a> as: "Then he said: Behold, I come to do Your will. He takes away the first, that he may establish the second". As noted on <a href='B:650 10:8'>Heb 10:8</a>, the "first" statement is associated with the first covenant, the law of Moses. The doing of God's will by the perfect sacrifice establishes "the second", i:e. the new covenant; and by doing so, the first covenant is made old (<a href='B:650 8:13'>Heb 8:13</a>), or as stated here, 'taken away', or literally 'slain / killed'. This is how totally the old covenant had been taken away. The second or new covenant was "established" in that as explained above, it was based upon the promises to Abraham which already existed, but which were mediated or brought into operation by the Lord's sacrifice. Thereby, men and women could become "in" the seed of Abraham, and the promises which were originally to only Abraham and his singular seed thereby were made to all within the One Messianic seed. These promises, this second or new covenant, was 'established' by the Lord's death; and thereby the "first", Mosaic covenant was done away. To return to that was therefore to reject the Lord's work and to shy away from the wonder of salvation now made so sure and established.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'><a href='B:650 10:10'>Heb 10:10</a> interprets further: "By which will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all". The "will" of God refers to God's will that none should perish but all should be saved (<a href='B:470 18:14'>Mat 18:14</a>; <a href='B:500 3:16'>Joh 3:16</a>; <a href='B:500 6:40'>Joh 6:40</a>). That will lead to the giving of His Son; and yet the Son had to freely fulfill that will of His own volition. The incredible will of God for human salvation was demonstrated publically by the offering of the Lord's body. This "once and for all" declared the will of God to save us, ending for all time any doubt or niggling suspicion that He is somehow indifferent to human salvation and is simply leaving us to make our own decisions without any passion or will from His side. The Lord's death was therefore His "will" (<a href='B:470 26:42'>Mat 26:42</a>). The doing of God's will by His Son is parallel with the finishing of His work (<a href='B:500 4:34'>Joh 4:34</a>), coming to a climax in His last words from the cross: "It is finished". Yet we too are to play our part in the doing of that will- in reaching out to save others by the grace of the Lord Jesus (<a href='B:650 10:36'>Heb 10:36</a>; <a href='B:650 13:21'>Heb 13:21</a>). "The offering of the body of Jesus" alludes to how the offering of animal bodies could not save of itself; but again it was the life and person of the Lord Jesus which saves, rather than simply His body, which was like any other human body.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I have proclaimed glad news of righteousness in the great assembly. Behold, I will not seal my lips, Yahweh, You know-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Through his Psalms, David was proclaiming to all that God was right and he was wrong, and yet thereby he had been saved by grace outside of the Mosaic system of sacrifices. The verse also describes how the Lord Jesus accomplished God’s will as the ultimate sacrifice, through the death of the cross. That death is foretold by the Lord, in the prophetic perfect, as ‘preaching righteousness to the great congregation’ [LXX ekklesia]. In living out the dying of the man Christ Jesus in our daily lives, we are making the witness of Christ. This and :10 speak of how the Lord Jesus would proclaim righteousness to the ekklesia and declare God’s faithfulness and salvation, i:e. the things of His Name. Yet this passage is quoted in <a href='B:650 10:5-7'>Heb 10:5-7</a> about the cross. It was there above all that “thy law is within my heart" and He “preached righteousness". This is why Paul can talk of “the preaching [which is] the cross". He as He was there is the ultimate witness. And this was why the Yahweh Name was written up over Him.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I have not hidden Your righteousness within my heart. I have declared Your faithfulness and Your salvation. I have not concealed Your grace and Your truth from the great assembly-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'><a href='B:230 39:9'>Psa 39:9</a>; <a href='B:230 39:11'>Psa 39:11</a> seems to describe an illness with which David was afflicted after his sin with Bathsheba. Psalms 40 then seems to be giving thanks for David’s cure and receipt of forgiveness; and it is replete with reference to David’s desire to spread the word: “He brought me up also out of an horrible pit</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>he hath put a new song in my mouth</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'> many shall see it, and fear, and turn to the Lord [alluded to in the way the Acts record accounts for the many conversions after the death of Ananias and Sapphira]</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'> blessed is that man [cp. <a href='B:230 32:1'>Psa 32:1</a>)</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I have preached righteousness [a ‘prophetic perfect’, meaning ‘I will do this</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>’]&nbsp; in the great congregation: lo, I have not refrained my lips</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I have declared (LXX euangelizesthai- evangelized) thy faithfulness and thy salvation [unto]</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'> the great congregation” (<a href='B:230 40:2-5'>Psa 40:2-5</a>; <a href='B:230 40:9-10'>Psa 40:9-10</a> AV). All desire to evangelize must likewise be based in a marvel at God's grace to us despite our sins.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>There is a connection between our preaching and salvation, because salvation depends upon faith; and if we believe, if we have drunk the living water, it will spring up in us and bubble over to others. Because David did not conceal God’s mercy and truth [a phrase often referring to the Gospel covenant to Abraham] from others, therefore God would not conceal His mercy and truth from David (<a href='B:230 40:10-11'>Psa 40:10-11</a>). The farmer who sows seed is likened to every preacher of the Gospel; and yet his own life and the lives of others depends upon the sowing of the seed. This is how vital preaching is; it isn’t the only virtue which the redeemed believer is expected to demonstrate, but it is one of them.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Don’t withhold Your tender mercies from me, Yahweh; let Your grace and Your truth continually preserve me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David appears both confident of having received God's mercy (see on :1), and yet also asking for those mercies. Perhaps he speaks earlier in the prophetic perfect, certain of receiving what is yet future. Or perhaps he believes he has received forgiveness, but wants help dealing with the consequences. Or perhaps his faith in the receipt of forgiveness is oscillating. "Grace / mercy and truth" is a term often used about the promises to Abraham. David rightly perceived that the essence of the blessing promised was forgiveness, as does Paul in Galatians 3 and Peter in <a href='B:510 3:24-26'>Act 3:24-26</a> - and not just eternal inheritance of land on earth.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For innumerable evils have surrounded me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'> David sees his sins and their consequences as "without number", but he uses the same word for God's "infinite" or "without number" "understanding" (s:w. <a href='B:230 147:5'>Psa 147:5</a>). God understands better than we do the nature of our sins and their consequences.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>My iniquities have overtaken me, so that I am not able to look up. They are more than the hairs of my head-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The same word is used of Laban's overtaking Jacob (<a href='B:10 31:25'>Gen 31:25</a>); again he takes comfort from the precedents in the story of Jacob. It is the same word for the Egyptians overtaking the Israelites before the Red Sea deliverance (<a href='B:20 14:9'>Exo 14:9</a>; <a href='B:20 15:9'>Exo 15:9</a>). He was like the man guilty of blood whom the avenger of blood had overtaken (<a href='B:50 19:6'>Deu 19:6</a>), and he was desperately seeking a city of refuge in Yahweh. <a href='B:100 15:14'>2Sa 15:14</a> uses the same word for&nbsp; "overtaken". The way he was saved from being overtaken by Absalom in judgment for this was perhaps an answer to his prayer of <a href='B:230 40:12'>Psa 40:12</a>. In the context of the consequences of his sin with Bathsheba, David says that his sins and their consequences are "more than the hairs of my head" (<a href='B:230 40:12'>Psa 40:12</a>). But he uses the same phrase in saying that his "without a cause" enemies are "more than the hairs of my head" (<a href='B:230 69:4'>Psa 69:4</a>). But again we note that he considers those consequences of his sin to be "without cause", and we wonder at the depth of his repentance and sense of culpability.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>My heart has failed me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This continues to reference David's emotional and psychological breakdown after the sin with Bathsheba; the same phrase is in <a href='B:230 38:10'>Psa 38:10</a>.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Be pleased, Yahweh, to deliver me. Hurry to help me, Yahweh-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David repeatedly asks God to "hurry to help me" (<a href='B:230 22:19'>Psa 22:19</a>; <a href='B:230 38:22'>Psa 38:22</a>; <a href='B:230 40:13'>Psa 40:13</a>; <a href='B:230 70:1'>Psa 70:1</a>; <a href='B:230 70:5'>Psa 70:5</a>; <a href='B:230 141:1'>Psa 141:1</a>). But David had hurried (s:w:) to be obedient to God, always wanting to 'say yes straight away' (<a href='B:230 119:60'>Psa 119:60</a>). Our response to God's voice is therefore related to His response to our voice; if His words abide in us, then we experience positive experience in answered prayer (<a href='B:500 15:7'>Joh 15:7</a>).</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Let them be disappointed and confounded together who seek after my soul to destroy it. Let them be turned backward and brought to dishonour who delight in my hurt-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Saul sought&nbsp; to take David's life. So many of the Psalms contain imprecations against those who were seeking David's soul- not just his physical life, but seeking to destroy his very being (e:g. <a href='B:230 35:4'>Psa 35:4</a>; <a href='B:230 40:14'>Psa 40:14</a>; <a href='B:230 54:1'>Psa 54:1</a>; <a href='B:230 63:9'>Psa 63:9</a>; <a href='B:230 70:2'>Psa 70:2</a>; <a href='B:230 71:13'>Psa 71:13</a>). These imprecations expose the evil of Saul, and asks God to condemn him. Some of those Psalms appear to have been written by David in the Saul days, and then rewritten at the time of Absalom's rebellion- another man who sought David's soul, and yet whom David loved:&nbsp;These words perhaps originated in the wilderness Psalm of <a href='B:230 35:4'>Psa 35:4</a>. But David repeats them here, in this Psalm which appears to reference to David's sin with Bathsheba, which provoked the plotting against David's life referred to here. And yet we wonder as to how David could so bitterly wish the destruction of his opponents, when he himself had been saved by grace.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Let them be desolate by reason of their shame that tell me, Aha! Aha!<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David's repeated desire to see the condemnation of those who were judging him seems inappropriate for a man saved by grace; for they were the vehicles for receiving the consequences of his sins.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Let all those who seek You rejoice and be glad in You. Let such as love Your salvation say continually, Let Yahweh be exalted!<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Again we query why and how David continues to see people in such black and white terms, divided between the righteous and unrighteous, when he himself had been revealed as a righteous man who had sinned seriously.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The faithful are described as "those that seek (God)::. such as love Your salvation". But truly seeks God (<a href='B:520 3:11'>Rom 3:11</a> - the context concerns all of us, believers and unbelievers); and yet we are those who seek Him. We must be ambitious to do the impossible. Those who truly love righteousness and the Kingdom will be rewarded with it. Likewise Paul in <a href='B:530 8:2-3'>1Co 8:2-3</a> describes the faithful man as one who accepts he knows nothing as he ought to know, but truly loves God. <a href='B:650 9:28'>Heb 9:28</a> is clear: "Unto them that look for (Christ) shall He appear the second time::. unto salvation". Those who truly look for Christ will be given salvation.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David responded to their seeking of him by seeking God more. He uses the language of the hunt and chase to describe how he was drawing closer to God: "My soul followeth hard after thee" (<a href='B:230 63:8'>Psa 63:8</a>; Psalms 63 is a wilderness psalm, see title). “Let them be ashamed and confounded that seek after my soul::. let all those that seek thee rejoice" (<a href='B:230 40:14'>Psa 40:14</a>; <a href='B:230 40:16'>Psa 40:16</a>). In this sense, David felt he wasn't fleeing from his enemies as much as fleeing to God: "Deliver me, O Lord, from mine enemies (from whom he was running): I flee unto thee to hide me" (<a href='B:230 143:9'>Psa 143:9</a>). This fleeing to God didn't mean that David and Jesus didn't respond or retaliate verbally; both of them, especially the Lord Jesus, did. They both pleaded their innocence, and accused their enemies of being unfair and hypocritical. Yet this must have been done from a genuine motive of love; as David loved Saul, as the thought of Saul's death must have torn at his heart, so the Lord Jesus loved Israel, weeping over Jerusalem, wishing to himself like a child for the impossible: that they would know him as their Saviour. Both David and Jesus had a real sense of direction, they could see that their mental, emotional and physical sufferings were leading them towards an altogether higher relationship with the Father. They took those sufferings as an almost welcome push towards the Father. They had a sure sense of spiritual direction in all their afflictions; this accounts for the human loneliness which they both felt.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>But I am poor and needy. May the Lord think about me. You are my help and my deliverer. Don’t delay, my God- He recognizes towards the end of this Psalm that the consequences of his sin continue, and he asks for them also to be removed, he is "needy" for answers, despite Nathan's words to him to the effect that they would continue. Yet in :1 he triumphs that his prayers have been heard and all is well; he has come up out of the pit (:2). This could therefore be read as assuming that because he was over his sickness, all his other issues were resolved. Or those earlier statements could be read as faith that he would be ultimately delivered from all the problems which his sin had caused.</p><h2></h2>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Jeduthun was perhaps "the chief musician" (<a href='B:230 39:1'>Psa 39:1</a>) who was to perform the Psalms or teach them to others (<a href='B:130 16:41-43'>1Ch 16:41-43</a> <a href='B:130 25:3-6'>1Ch 25:3-6</a>).</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Blessed is he who considers the poor. Yahweh will deliver him in the day of evil-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'> The Hebrew for "consider" really means to understand- that’s how it is normally translated. To be sensitive to the poor, to understand them, to have a heart that bleeds for them- this is what God seeks in us. And yet David appears here to be justifying himself as delivered from his day of evil because he had been generous to the poor- when in fact David was saved by grace and not by such good works. Many of the Psalms are clearly relevant to David, and yet just as clearly relevant to Hezekiah and other Kings. Thus Psalms 41 is David’s reflection on the situation of 2 Samuel 15 - but evidently it’s been re-written with reference to Hezekiah, also afflicted with an “evil disease”; and Ahithophel’s part in David’s life was played out in Hezekiah’s life by Shebna (<a href='B:290 22:15'>Isa 22:15</a>). It seems apparent they were re-written over time, and hence have relevance to various historical settings. </p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yahweh will preserve him, and keep him alive. He shall be blessed on the earth, and he will not surrender him to the will of his enemies-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As noted on :1, David was preserved by grace and not by the fact he had been generous to the poor (:1), as he liked to imagine.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yahweh will sustain him on his sickbed, and restore him from his bed of illness-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The previous Psalms (Psalms 38-40) have described David on his bed of apparently terminal sickness after the sin with Bathsheba, being saved by grace. And he wishes to encourage all men to share in his path of healing and experience of grace.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I said, Yahweh, have mercy on me! Heal me, for I have sinned against You-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Have mercy" here and in :10 is the term used in David's plea for forgiveness in <a href='B:230 51:1'>Psa 51:1</a>. The cry for mercy suggests the moral guilt of the sin with Bathsheba, which had its consequence in David's mortal sickness with which it seems he was stricken soon afterwards (as in <a href='B:230 30:8'>Psa 30:8</a>).</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>My enemies speak evil against me: When will he die, and his name perish?<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David's prayers for restoration after the crisis with Bathsheba do indeed include a bald admission of sin as in :4. But his prayers seem to spend far more time in asking for deliverance from his enemies, avoidance of personal shame, and judgment upon them- again suggesting his repentance was not all it might have been.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>If he comes to see me, he speaks falsehood. His heart gathers iniquity to itself. When he goes outside, he tells it-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The person in view is his "familiar friend" of :9. He doesn't perhaps name Ahithophel because these Psalms were written whilst he still felt the possibility of restoring his relationship with Ahithophel and didn't want to openly state what he knew Ahithophel (Bathsheba's grandfather) was up to. Whilst on his bed of sickness, it seems Ahithophel visited David, speaking falsehood to him, and then went outside and slandered him to the world, as in :8.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>All who hate me whisper together against me. They imagine the worst for me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'><a href='B:100 12:19'>2Sa 12:19</a> speaks of David's courtiers whispering about him soon after the sin with Bathsheba. So we can assume that his courtiers are in view here, caught up in the conspiracy to overthrow him, putting around the idea that he was too weak to resist any conspiracy (:8).</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>An evil disease, they say, has afflicted him. Now that he lies he shall rise up no more-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Heb. 'a disease of Belial'. The idea was that because David had sinned, some kind of supernatural 'devil' or demons had smitten David and he would die. We notice that David didn't share this mistaken, paganic view; instead he repeatedly attributes his disease to Yahweh, and believed that therefore Yahweh could lift it.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yes, my own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, who ate bread with me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The person in view is clearly Ahithophel, David's counsellor, the "man of my peace" (<a href='B:100 15:12'>2Sa 15:12</a>), referenced also in <a href='B:230 55:13-14'>Psa 55:13-14</a>. The king's counsellor in oriental courts always ate at his table. The Lord's invitation to all, sinners included, to eat at His table::. is therefore a sublime insight into how radically inclusive He was and Isa.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The verse is quoted specifically about Judas in <a href='B:500 15:18'>Joh 15:18</a>. The Lord knew beforehand that Judas would betray Him, just as Samson knew surely that Delilah would; although neither man could admit it to himself. This is just a psychological condition typical of human beings. It helps explain why the Lord Jesus knew from the beginning that Judas would betray him (<a href='B:500 6:64'>Joh 6:64</a>), and yet how He could really trust in Judas as his own familiar friend, confide in him (<a href='B:230 41:9'>Psa 41:9</a>), tell him that he would sit with the other eleven on thrones in the Kingdom (<a href='B:470 19:28'>Mat 19:28</a>). This was ever a serious contradiction for me, until considering the Samson : Delilah relationship in depth. A man can know something about someone on one level, but act and feel towards them in a quite different way than this knowledge requires.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Has lifted up his heel against me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Apparently an allusion to how the seed of the woman would strike the seed of the serpent with his heel (<a href='B:10 3:15'>Gen 3:15</a>). Ahithophel was treating David as the seed of the serpent, rather than realizing that a member of the seed of the woman can still sin, be forgiven and remain on the Lord's side rather than that of the serpent.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>But You, Yahweh, have mercy on me, and raise me up, that I may repay them-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As noted on :4, the cry for mercy and being raised up from the bed of sickness was primarily in the context of David's sin with Bathsheba. But even in that dire situation, David is still thinking of repaying his enemies. Grace is such a difficult concept to totally grasp, and the old ways of behaviour-based judgment die so hard.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>By this I know that You delight in me, because my enemy doesn’t triumph over me-</p>&nbsp;<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Tenses in Hebrew aren't exact (unlike in Greek). Seeing this is a prayer for help (:10),, the idea may be 'I will now that You delight in me if you save me from my enemies'. This would be manipulative. David has previously claimed that his only desire is for forgiveness; whereas here he reveals how desperately he wanted to be saved from the consequences of those sins. And Nathan's prophetic word had made it clear that God intended him to suffer those consequences.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As for me, You uphold me in my integrity, and set me in Your presence forever-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>He looked forward to eternity as being in God's presence eternally. His focus was not upon living on a perfected earth, true as that may be; but rather upon relationship with God.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The Bathsheba Psalms, and those written after that time, clearly reflect how David had a sense of integrity before God. <a href='B:230 41:4'>Psa 41:4</a>; <a href='B:230 41:12'>Psa 41:12</a> is a good example: “I said, Lord, be merciful unto me: heal my soul; for I have sinned</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>as for me, thou upholdest me in mine integrity, and settest me before thy face for ever”. How could David, David the adulterer and the murderer, speak of his integrity</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>? Only, surely, because he truly believed in imputed righteousness. Although I have noted the possibility throughout the Psalms that David was perhaps not as repentant as he might have been for his sin. Yet forgiven sinners- and none of us are essentially any different to David- can have genuine integrity before God and men, because of this wonderful thing called imputed righteousness, justification by grace, call it by whatever theological term we like. But the bottom line in practice is that we can have genuine integrity before God and man. Yet, of course, men are no so willing to accept this</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'> those who break that 11th commandment ‘Thou shalt not be caught!’ are very often treated as if they can never have any integrity, and are for ever second class citizens in their community. But this isn’t the way of those who seek to reflect God’s way of dealing with sin.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Blessed be Yahweh, the God of Israel, from everlasting and to everlasting! Amen and amen- David was bidding all people share in his experience of grace through joining in with his Psalms; he wishes them to say "Amen and amen" on a personal level, thus personalizing his experiences to themselves.</p><h2></h2>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For the Chief Musician. A contemplation by the sons of Korah-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"By" can as well be "for", so the Psalm may still be Davidic, but is dedicated to the memory of the sons of Korah. Korah had died in rebellion against God, but his children had been preserved (<a href='B:40 26:9-11'>Num 26:9-11</a>); they therefore became representative of all who had overcome bad background to worship Yahweh independently, regardless of the sins of their fathers. They were therefore inspirational to the righteous remnant amongst the exiles in Babylon. Or these "sons of Korah" may refer to a group of musicians who were to perform the Psalm, the Levitical singers mentioned in <a href='B:130 26:1-2'>1Ch 26:1-2</a>; <a href='B:140 20:19'>2Ch 20:19</a>. Or if we insist on reading "by", it could have been a Davidic Psalm edited and as it were released by a group called "the sons of Korah" during the captivity in Babylon. But the Psalm clearly has reference to David's time at Mahanaim, which could have been months (<a href='B:100 17:24'>2Sa 17:24</a>; <a href='B:100 19:32'>2Sa 19:32</a>), whilst fleeing Absalom. This was the original context of the Psalm, but David sitting by the waters in exile was obviously relevant to the captives sitting by the rivers of Babylon. Hence the title in the Syriac: "A Psalm which David sung when he was an exile and desired to return to Jerusalem"; the Arabic "A Psalm for the backsliding Jews".</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As the deer pants for the water brooks, so my soul pants after You, God-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The theme of water in this Psalm (:7 too) is appropriate to David being by the waters of the Kidron and then the Jordan as he fled from Absalom. David sitting by the waters in exile was obviously relevant to the captives sitting by the rivers of Babylon.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This reveals David's special longing for the sanctuary in Zion, where he 'appeared before God' to keep the Mosaic feasts (<a href='B:20 23:17'>Exo 23:17</a>). But the application to the Lord Jesus is very clear- His was the ultimate, actual appearance before God in Heaven.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>My tears have been my food day and night, while they continually ask me, Where is your God?<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This would imply that David's enemies had access to him whilst he lay at Mahanaim in exile from Absalom; we recall how Shimei followed David on the route, cursing him as he went. Or perhaps his own supporters were saying this. The exiles were likewise mocked in Babylon; and the Lord Jesus likewise on the cross:&nbsp;</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>These things I remember and pour out my soul within me, how I used to go with the crowd, and led them to God’s house, with the voice of joy and praise, a multitude keeping a holy day-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This is David recalling how he used to lead the people towards the sanctuary on Zion on feast days. "God's house" however suggests the temple, and this was not built in David's time. So this may well have been added under inspiration when the Psalm was used by the sons of Korah in the Babylonian exile; see on :1.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Why are you in despair, my soul? Why are you disturbed within me? Hope in God!<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This kind of self-talk should characterize all of God's true people. For this is the very essence of spiritual mindedness. Psalms 42 has many echoes of the cross, although primarily it refers to David's longing for the tabernacle whilst exiled by Absalom:&nbsp; "Why art thou cast down, O my soul?" (:5 AV) is the same in the Septuagint as <a href='B:470 26:38'>Mat 26:38</a> "Now is my soul troubled".</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For I shall still praise Him for the saving help of His presence-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Perhaps applicable to a vision of glory appearing to the Lord Jesus in Gethsemane, transferring some of the glory of His countenance to Jesus as He did to Moses, so that the Lord's arresters initially fell down when they saw Him. David spoke of praising God for the health of His face; and then talks of how God is the source of the health of his face (<a href='B:230 42:5'>Psa 42:5</a>; <a href='B:230 42:11'>Psa 42:11</a> RV). It’s as if the glory of the invisible God rubbed off upon David, as it did literally for Moses, whose faced became radiant with the glory of the Angel who spoke to him:&nbsp;</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>My God, my soul is in despair within me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Despite his undoubted physique stamina, David was a broken man, depressed, and even quite early in his life, prone to fits of introspection; dramatic mood-swings (cp. <a href='B:90 24:14'>1Sa 24:14</a> with <a href='B:90 25:6'>1Sa 25:6</a>; <a href='B:90 25:22'>1Sa 25:22</a>; <a href='B:90 25:34'>1Sa 25:34</a>;), sometimes appearing a real 'softie' but hard as nails at others (consider <a href='B:230 75:10'>Psa 75:10</a> and the whole of Psalms 101); easily getting carried away: be it with excessive emotional enthusiasm for bringing the ark back, in his harsh response to Hanun humbling his servants, his over-hasty and emotional decision to let Amnon go to Absalom's feast when it was obvious what might well transpire, his anger "flaring up" because of incompetency (<a href='B:100 11:20'>2Sa 11:20</a> NIV),&nbsp; or in his ridiculous softness for Absalom. He had a heart cruelly torn so many ways. All these traits are amply reflected in the Psalms: <a href='B:230 6:7'>Psa 6:7</a>; <a href='B:230 31:10'>Psa 31:10</a>; <a href='B:230 42:3'>Psa 42:3</a>; <a href='B:230 42:6'>Psa 42:6</a>; <a href='B:230 38:8'>Psa 38:8</a>; <a href='B:230 55:4'>Psa 55:4</a>; <a href='B:230 56:8'>Psa 56:8</a>; <a href='B:230 69:3'>Psa 69:3</a>; <a href='B:230 69:29'>Psa 69:29</a>; <a href='B:230 88:3'>Psa 88:3</a>; <a href='B:230 88:9'>Psa 88:9</a>; <a href='B:230 94:19'>Psa 94:19</a> (what introspection!); 102:4; 116:3; 143:4.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Therefore I remember You from the land of the Jordan, the heights of Hermon, from the hill Mizar-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This may have been the area of Mahanaim, where it seems David remained whilst in exile from Absalom (<a href='B:100 17:24'>2Sa 17:24</a>). "The heights of Hermon" is literally 'the Hermons', LXX "the Hermonites", perhaps referring to the mountain range which began at Mount Hermon and continued to the Mahanaim area. "Mizar" is unknown, but could be read as "the little hill" (LXX). However, this interpretation of the geography could appear forced, especially with the reference to "cataracts" in :7. Hence Ray Stedman suggested that David was recalling "an experience that he had when he was in the northern part of Israel near Mount Hermon, at the head of the Jordan River, on a little peak of the range where Mount Hermon is located, called Mount Mizar (which, incidentally, means "little mountain"). On that occasion he could hear the waterfalls of that mountainous region, the thundering cataracts. He became aware of how they seemed to be calling to one another, "deep calling unto deep," and it reminded him that the deeps in God call out to the deeps in man".</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Deep calls to deep at the noise of Your waterfalls. All Your waves and Your billows have swept over me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Waterfalls" is better "cataracts", perhaps referring to the spot on the Jordan River where he was sitting as he composed this Psalm. See on :6. David like Jonah feels he has drowned and is in a living death.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yahweh will command His grace in the daytime. In the night His song shall be with me: a prayer to the God of my life-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yahweh's song connects with how the exiles also by the waters (of Babylon) were asked to sing Yahweh's song, the Psalms used in temple worship. David says that he will sing Yahweh's song, the temple liturgy, even though in exile from the temple. For he realizes that God's presence is not limited to the sanctuary. GNB may be correct in suggesting: "May the LORD show his constant love during the day, so that I may have a song at night". "The God of my life" could mean the God who alone could preserve David's life; or the God who was the focus of David's life.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I will ask God, my rock, Why have You forgotten me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The prototype of Christ feeling forsaken was in David feeling forsaken by God when he fled from Absalom (<a href='B:230 42:9'>Psa 42:9</a>; <a href='B:230 43:2'>Psa 43:2</a>; <a href='B:230 88:14'>Psa 88:14</a>); but clearly he was not actually forsaken. Despite these feelings, David was spiritually mature enough to still consider God as his "rock", even though he felt God wasn't coming through for him as he expected. He expresses the same in <a href='B:230 43:2'>Psa 43:2</a>. "Oppression" was what God's later people were to suffer at the hands of their enemies (s:w. <a href='B:290 30:20'>Isa 30:20</a>; <a href='B:50 26:7'>Deu 26:7</a>); David's suffering was seen as that of God's later people, and so his Psalms were reused in this context.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As with a sword in my bones, my adversaries reproach me, while they continually ask me, Where is your God?<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David was sensitive to words; whilst in exile from Absalom, his enemies clearly had access to him and were communicating with him "continually". And he felt those words as swords. The sword that pierced Christ's soul on the cross was the sword of the abuse which was shouted at Him then (<a href='B:230 42:10'>Psa 42:10</a>); and the piercing of Christ's soul, Simeon had said, was the piercing of Mary's soul too. In other words, they were both really cut, pierced, by this mocking of the virgin birth. Neither of them were hard and indifferent to it. And the fact they both stood together at the cross and faced it together must have drawn them closer, and made their parting all the harder. She alone knew beyond doubt that God was Christ's father, even though the Lord had needed to rebuke her for being so carried away with the humdrum of life that she once referred to Joseph as His father (<a href='B:490 2:33'>Luk 2:33</a>). For everyone else, there must always have been that tendency to doubt.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Why are you in despair, my soul? Why are you disturbed within me? Hope in God! For I shall still praise Him, the saving help of my countenance, and my God- </p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Despair" is the word used of David's feelings after the sin with Bathsheba (s:w. <a href='B:230 38:6'>Psa 38:6</a>). It is the word for bowing down, for humility. But nobody likes being bowed down in humility, and David likewise wriggles against it. But we see here the kind of self-talk which is characteristic of all those who are truly spiritually minded. This 'bowing down' was to characterize the sufferings of Judah for their sins (s:w. <a href='B:290 2:11'>Isa 2:11</a>; <a href='B:290 5:15'>Isa 5:15</a>; <a href='B:290 26:5'>Isa 26:5</a>). David was possibly asking himself a rhetorical question- Why was he bowed down? Because God wanted to humble him so that He might restore him. But "help" is the usual word for 'salvation', and "countenance" is the usual word for 'face'. 'Save my face' would be a fair translation. And here again we encounter our concerns as to whether David's repentance was as thorough as it might have been. He did indeed confess his sin and seek forgiveness. But so much of his praying at this time is for God to save him from shame, and to judge and destroy and eternally condemn those at whose hands he was receiving judgment for his sins. And this was the problem with the exiles whom he later came to represent.</p><h2></h2>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Vindicate me, God, and plead my cause against an ungodly nation. Oh, deliver me from deceitful and wicked men-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Many Biblical characters worked their way through this problem of being distracted by others in their community. <a href='B:230 43:1'>Psa 43:1</a> begins with David lamenting how he had been unfairly judged by an “unmerciful nation” of Israel, but concludes with him focusing back on his personal relationship with the Father: “Why art thou cast down, O my soul?::. hope thou in God::. who is the health of my countenance and my God” (:5 AV). David felt that his judgment by his nation in the wake of his sin with Bathsheba was unjust, and he asks God to legally plead his case against them. But before the court of Divine justice, David had been verily guilty. Again we sense that his desire for forgiveness was genuine enough, but the extent of his penitence was continually limited by his abiding sense that he was better than his nation, and his fear of shame in their eyes.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>In the context of the exiles, the "ungodly nation" was Babylon; the "wicked men" were initially the supporters of Saul and Absalom, but then became the Babylonians.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For You are the God of my strength. Why have You rejected me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Despite these feelings, David was spiritually mature enough to still consider God as his "strength", even though he felt God wasn't coming through for him as he expected. David of all people appeared confident in his relationship with God and his personal hope of salvation. And yet he frequently felt at times “cast off” (<a href='B:230 43:2'>Psa 43:2</a>; <a href='B:230 44:9'>Psa 44:9</a>; <a href='B:230 60:1'>Psa 60:1</a>; <a href='B:230 74:1'>Psa 74:1</a>; <a href='B:230 77:7'>Psa 77:7</a>; <a href='B:230 88:14'>Psa 88:14</a>; <a href='B:230 89:38'>Psa 89:38</a>; <a href='B:230 108:11'>Psa 108:11</a>), using a Hebrew word elsewhere commonly used about God’s final rejection of sinners. David genuinely felt a condemned man- and yet he rejoiced in God’s salvation. Few of us get the balance so right. The prototype of Christ feeling forsaken was in David feeling forsaken by God when he fled from Absalom (<a href='B:230 42:9'>Psa 42:9</a>; <a href='B:230 43:2'>Psa 43:2</a>; <a href='B:230 88:14'>Psa 88:14</a>); but clearly he was not actually forsaken. "Oppression" was what God's later people were to suffer at the hands of their enemies (s:w. <a href='B:290 30:20'>Isa 30:20</a>; <a href='B:50 26:7'>Deu 26:7</a>); David's suffering was seen as that of God's later people, and so his Psalms were reused in this context.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Oh, send out Your light and Your truth. Let them lead me. Let them bring me to Your holy hill, to Your great tent-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David sees himself as Israel in the wilderness, being led by the light of the shekinah glory in the cloud and fire. So often we have noted that David felt the presence of God in exile just as much as he did in the sanctuary in Zion; thus he often comments that he is under God's wings, as if he felt located on the mercy seat with the blood of atonement beneath him and the cherubic wings and shekinah glory above him. But still he is so desperate for the sanctuary in Zion, as if he maybe hadn't quite learned the lesson; and maybe this was why he was so insistent upon building a physical temple there, even though God had said this was not in fact what He wanted:&nbsp;</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Then I will go to the altar of God, to God, my exceeding joy. I will praise You on the harp, God, my God-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'> We again note that the literal altar in Zion was David's greatest joy; see on :3. He seems to equate "God" with "the altar of God"; as many do today, he failed to separate religious externalities from God. But then we can also note that as we go through the life of David, it is evident he went along roads few others have travelled. For example, who else would offer his sacrifice upon the altar and then start strumming his harp in praise as he watched the animal burn (<a href='B:230 43:4'>Psa 43:4</a> Heb:)? This was a new paradigm in Israelite worship.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Why are you in despair, my soul? Why are you disturbed within me? Hope in God! For I shall still praise Him: my saviour, my helper, and my God- </p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Despair" is the word used of David's feelings after the sin with Bathsheba (s:w. <a href='B:230 38:6'>Psa 38:6</a>). It is the word for bowing down, for humility. But nobody likes being bowed down in humility, and David likewise wriggles against it. But we see here the kind of self-talk which is characteristic of all those who are truly spiritually minded. This 'bowing down' was to characterize the sufferings of Judah for their sins (s:w. <a href='B:290 2:11'>Isa 2:11</a>; <a href='B:290 5:15'>Isa 5:15</a>; <a href='B:290 26:5'>Isa 26:5</a>). David was possibly asking himself a rhetorical question- Why was he bowed down? Because God wanted to humble him so that He might restore him.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>AV has as in <a href='B:230 42:11'>Psa 42:11</a> "Praise Him who is the health of my countenance". But "health" is the usual word for 'salvation', and "countenance" is the usual word for 'face'. 'Save my face' would be a fair translation. And here again we encounter our concerns as to whether David's repentance was as thorough as it might have been. He did indeed confess his sin and seek forgiveness. But so much of his praying at this time is for God to save him from shame, and to judge and destroy and eternally condemn those at whose hands he was receiving judgment for his sins. And this was the problem with the exiles whom he later came to represent.</p><h2></h2>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For the Chief Musician. By the sons of Korah. A contemplative Psalm</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"By" can as well be "for", so the Psalm may still be Davidic, but is dedicated to the memory of the sons of Korah. Korah had died in rebellion against God, but his children had been preserved (<a href='B:40 26:9-11'>Num 26:9-11</a>); they therefore became representative of all who had overcome bad background to worship Yahweh independently, regardless of the sins of their fathers. They were therefore inspirational to the righteous remnant amongst the exiles in Babylon. Or these "sons of Korah" may refer to a group of musicians who were to perform the Psalm, the Levitical singers mentioned in <a href='B:130 26:1-2'>1Ch 26:1-2</a>; <a href='B:140 20:19'>2Ch 20:19</a>. Or if we insist on reading "by", it could have been a Davidic Psalm edited and as it were released by a group called "the sons of Korah" during the captivity in Babylon.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The Psalm appears to be reflection upon Israel's defeat, at least temporarily. This isn't recorded in the historical records of David's life. But the Psalm has many connections with Psalms 60, which is Davidic <a href='B:230 60:1'>Psa 60:1</a>; <a href='B:230 60:10'>Psa 60:10</a> = <a href='B:230 44:9-10'>Psa 44:9-10</a>; <a href='B:230 60:11'>Psa 60:11</a> = <a href='B:230 44:26'>Psa 44:26</a> etc:). So it appears to be a comment upon a temporary set back and defeat during this campaign against Edom.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>We have heard with our ears, God; our fathers have told us, what work You did in their days, in the days of old-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>In the times of mass illiteracy, the history of Israel would have been repeated orally. This was not to be just the job of the priests, the teachers of Israel, but of the "fathers" of all the tribes. The emphasis in the Psalm is upon God's work being greater than any human work.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>You drove out the nations with Your hand, but You planted them. You afflicted the peoples, but You spread them abroad-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The "them" is Israel, contrasted with "the nations / peoples". "Drove out" is the word for "inherit" in the promises that Abraham's seed would "inherit" the land (:3; <a href='B:10 15:7-8'>Gen 15:7-8</a>; <a href='B:10 28:4'>Gen 28:4</a>). As in our experience, there is always a primary fulfilment of God's promises and eternal covenant, which was based around the promises to Abraham. This was of particular comfort to the exiles (s:w. <a href='B:230 69:35'>Psa 69:35</a>). Although God appeared not to be coming through for them at the time (see on :1), they were to take comfort in the covenant with Abraham; God's hand had worked in the past and would do so again, and the land was ultimately theirs. Even if at the moment their enemies were in the ascendancy.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For they didn’t get the land in possession by their own sword, neither did their own arm save them; but Your right hand, and Your arm, and the light of Your face, because You were favourable to them-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This contrasts with how Jacob's final words were to the effect that he had carved out his own inheritance at Shechem by his sword and bow (<a href='B:10 48:22'>Gen 48:22</a>). David is recognizing that this attitude was wrong; and yet the spiritually weak "Jacob" was still to be saved by God's grace (:4).</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>You are my King, God. Command victories for Jacob!<strong>- </strong></p>&nbsp;<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David the king repeatedly calls God his "king". His exaltation didn't lead him to pride, as he was always under the deep impression that he was not the ultimate king (<a href='B:230 5:2'>Psa 5:2</a>; <a href='B:230 10:16'>Psa 10:16</a>; <a href='B:230 29:10'>Psa 29:10</a>; <a href='B:230 44:4'>Psa 44:4</a>; <a href='B:230 47:6'>Psa 47:6</a>). His personal relationship with God was, he believed, the basis for "victories for Jacob", all God's weak and wandering people.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Through You will we push down our adversaries. Through Your name will we tread them under who rise up against us-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The connections with Psalms 60 (see on :1). lead us to conclude that this prayer was heard in the final victory against Edom (see on <a href='B:230 60:1'>Psa 60:1</a>), who had 'risen up' against Israel.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For I will not trust in my bow, neither shall my sword save me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The more closely we analyze the Bible heroes, the more apparent it is that they were shot through with weakness; and some of those weaknesses it seems they unsuccessfully battled with until the day of their death. I think of Jacob, always trusting in his own strength, being progressively taught to trust in Yahweh's strength. And yet right at the very end of his life, he lets slip a comment which would seem more appropriate to his earlier life: "Shechem::. which I took out of the hand of the Amorite with my sword and with my bow" (<a href='B:10 48:22'>Gen 48:22</a>). The wrongness of this attitude seems to be alluded to in <a href='B:60 24:12'>Jos 24:12</a>, which says that God drove out the Amorites "but not with your sword, neither with your bow" . And here in <a href='B:230 44:3'>Psa 44:3</a>; <a href='B:230 44:6'>Psa 44:6</a> also. So Jacob, right at the end of his life, still hadn't completely overcome that besetting weakness of self-reliance. This is, of course, a dangerous road to go down. In no way can we be complacent about our urgent need for spiritual growth. But on the other hand, we will never reach the stature of Christ without righteousness being imputed to us. In this sense, true Christian believers aren't good people. Perhaps David had learned from the demise of Saul and Jonathan, whose "bow::. and sword" were used by them in the fateful battle on Gilboa (<a href='B:100 1:22'>2Sa 1:22</a>), yet didn't save them.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>But You have saved us from our adversaries, and have shamed those who hate us-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The Psalm will go on to complain that now, their adversaries were in the ascendancy (:22,23 etc:). But David refuses to thereby forget that God has indeed amazingly come through for His people in the past. So often, the sense that God is not coming through for us right now leads people to discount all His amazing historical grace. And that is one function of Biblical history.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>In God we have made our boast all day long, we will give thanks to Your name forever. Selah-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As noted on :7, it is quite a reflection of David's faith and spirituality that he could praise and boast of God, even when (as the Psalm goes on to state), he feels God has not come through for him as He ought to have done.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>But now You rejected us, and brought us to dishonour, and don’t go out with our armies-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Even when feeling rejected by God, David still praised God and boasted of what He had done in the past (:7,8). This should be our attitude- that even if rejected by God, or feeling rejected, our basic love and respect of Him should continue. God not going out with Israel's armies, and their turning back from their enemies (:10), is all the language of the punishments for Israel breaking the covenant. Instead of confessing this, David instead focuses upon the sinfulness of their enemies, and asking God to reverse the situation. As in his own attitude to his sin with Bathsheba, he appears more interested in seeing the consequences of sin taken away than in actually repenting and receiving forgiveness.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>You make us turn back from the adversary. Those who hate us take spoil for themselves-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As noted on :9, turning backs before enemies was a curse for breaking the covenant. David should have recognized this, and confessed it and urged Israel to repent. Instead, rather like in his own difficulty in repenting over his sin with Bathsheba, he instead focuses upon the consequences for sin and begs God to remove them.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>You have made us like sheep for food, and have scattered us among the nations-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This was surely added, under inspiration, by the exiles using this psalm of David.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>You sell Your people for nothing, and have gained nothing from their sale-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This would imply that Yahweh as the seller considered His people worthless, and was pleased to get rid of them for nothing. This is far from a fair description of what happened at the captivity. The explanation as to why they were sold for nothing is given clearly in <a href='B:300 15:13'>Jer 15:13</a>: "Your substance and your treasures will I give for a spoil without price and that for all your sins". Just as David struggled to accept that the consequences of his sin with Bathsheba were appropriate and just, so did the exiles. They had sold themselves into captivity, according to their own prophets. If God has as it were profited by their sale, then they would have criticized that too. In fact, <a href='B:290 50:1'>Isa 50:1</a> presents God's lack of gain from their 'sale' as an example of His love and grace: "Thus says Yahweh, Where is the bill of your mother’s divorce, for which I have put her away? Or which of My creditors is it to whom I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities were you sold".</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>You make us a reproach to our neighbours, a scoffing and a derision to those who are around us-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This was exactly as the prophets had warned would happen if they continued in their sins (<a href='B:330 23:32'>Eze 23:32</a>; <a href='B:350 7:16'>Hos 7:16</a> etc:). To complain about it was simply refusing to accept the consequence for sin.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>You make us a byword among the nations, a shaking of the head among the peoples-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As noted on :13, this was exactly as the prophets had warned would happen if they continued in their sins and suffered the curses for breaking the covenant (<a href='B:50 28:37'>Deu 28:37</a>; <a href='B:300 24:9'>Jer 24:9</a> etc:). To complain about it was simply refusing to accept the consequence for sin.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>All day long my dishonour is before me, and shame covers my face-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Verses 13 and 14 are clearly the feelings of the exiles, but they were based upon David's own feelings of shame over the sins connected with Bathsheba and Uriah. Again we note that he seems more concerned about the removal of the consequence for his sins, especially his shame, rather than in receiving forgiveness.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>at the taunt of one who reproaches and verbally abuses, because of the enemy and the avenger-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This is the term used of Goliath in <a href='B:230 8:2'>Psa 8:2</a>. But the taunts of the likes of Shimei, reproaching him for being a "man of blood" (<a href='B:100 16:8'>2Sa 16:8</a>), were largely true. Shimei's words were painful to David, perhaps because they contained a fair amount of truth.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>All this has come on us, yet have we not forgotten You, neither have we been false to Your covenant-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The language now again returns to "we", the exiles. Perhaps at best they were saying 'We have not broken the covenant, so it is unfair we are suffering the results of our fathers breaking the covenant'. Ezekiel was up against the same argument. And his answer was that indeed God punishes men for their own sins and not those of their fathers- and the new generation of exiles had indeed sinned themselves. And also to be factored in to this is the fact that sin often brings consequences to others. That is part of what sin Isa. Like David, they were struggling to accept consequences of sin.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Our heart has not turned back, neither have our steps strayed from Your path-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>To judge oneself as innocent of any sin of the heart is surely arrogance. 'Turning back' is associated with idolatry (<a href='B:290 42:17'>Isa 42:17</a>). And there is plenty of evidence within Ezekiel that the exiles were still idolatrous. We note how the names 'Mordecai' (based upon 'Marduk') and 'Esther' were reflective of idolatry.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>though You have crushed us in the haunt of jackals, and covered us with the shadow of death-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'> "The haunt of jackals" is likely a reference to Babylon, seen as the land of the shadow of death. David had felt "broken" (s:w. "crushed") because of his sin with Bathsheba and the consequences (<a href='B:230 51:8'>Psa 51:8</a>). It seems the exiles edited his words and applied them to themselves- whilst missing the point, that David suffered rightly, and so did they. Their 'covering' with death was appropriate judgment (s:w. <a href='B:290 29:10'>Isa 29:10</a>).</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>If we have forgotten the name of our God, or spread forth our hands to a strange god-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'><a href='B:230 44:20'>Psa 44:20</a> balances the sin of omission against the sin of commission: “If we have forgotten the name of our God [omission], or stretched out our hands to a strange god” [commission]. It makes a good exercise to watch for how many times the Proverbs treat sins of omission as if they are sins of active commission. "He that is slothful in his work is brother to him that is a great waster" (<a href='B:240 18:9'>Pro 18:9</a>)- 'mere' laziness, as we may see it, an omission of working- is the same as the commission of a purposefully destructive person. But as noted on :18, the exiles generally were guilty of idolatry. So even if those now appropriating David's Psalm to themselves were innocent, they needed to be far more honest and realistic about the state of their community.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>won’t God search this out? For He knows the secrets of the heart-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As David confidently asked God to search his heart, so did the exiles (s:w. <a href='B:230 139:1'>Psa 139:1</a>; <a href='B:230 139:23'>Psa 139:23</a>). But Judah were in captivity exactly because God had searched their hearts and found them seriously astray from Him (s:w. <a href='B:300 17:10'>Jer 17:10</a>). It was their duty now in exile to search their own hearts and repent (s:w. <a href='B:310 3:40'>Lam 3:40</a>):&nbsp;</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yes, for Your sake we are killed all day long. We are regarded as sheep for the slaughter-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'> "For Your sake" implies God was somehow unjust in treating them as sheep for the slaughter. It was the Lord Jesus who was to save them by becoming the "sheep for the slaughter", identifying with their condemnation, so that any who identified with Him could be saved from it. But instead, the exiles here lament their situation and asked for these consequences of their sins to be removed- with no mention of repentance or guilt.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This verse is quoted in <a href='B:520 8:36'>Rom 8:36</a>, in the context of talking about the condemnation of sin (<a href='B:520 8:34'>Rom 8:34</a>). In the context of Romans, Paul has been arguing that we are all rightly condemned. But his final point at the climax of his argument here at the end of Romans 1-8 is that despite that, God's love is still with us and He shall by grace save His true people from that condemnation which they rightly experience (<a href='B:520 8:37-39'>Rom 8:37-39</a>). This was the perspective which the exiles, and David, ought to have had; and Paul uses this verse precisely in the way I have suggested we interpret it.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Wake up! Why do You sleep, Lord? Arise! Don’t reject us forever-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>To accuse God of sleeping seems as inappropriate as the disciples' demand for the Lord Jesus to awake from sleep because His apparent sleeping showed that He didn't care that they perished (<a href='B:480 4:38'>Mar 4:38</a>). He did of course care for their perishing. He gave His life for that. David in better moments realized that God doesn't sleep (<a href='B:230 121:4'>Psa 121:4</a>). Likewise it was inappropriate to claim that God was going to reject His people forever (also in <a href='B:230 74:1'>Psa 74:1</a>). The prophets had made it abundantly plain that God would not reject forever. Israel had "the hope of Israel" as surely as the planets are in the sky:&nbsp;</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Why do You hide Your face, and forget our affliction and our oppression?<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Oppression" was what God's later people were to suffer at the hands of their enemies for their sins (s:w. <a href='B:290 30:20'>Isa 30:20</a>; <a href='B:50 26:7'>Deu 26:7</a>); David's suffering was seen as that of God's later people, and so his Psalms were reused in this context. But that suffering was judgment and consequence for sin. It was the cloud of their sin which hid them from God's face, rather than Him losing interest in them and looking somewhere else.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For our soul is bowed down to the dust. Our body clings to the earth-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'> "Bowed down" is used of the exiles in <a href='B:310 3:20'>Lam 3:20</a>. But it is David who speaks of his body clinging or cleaving to the dust (<a href='B:230 119:25'>Psa 119:25</a>). Again we have to conclude that the person feelings of David after his sin with Bathsheba are appropriate by the exiles, and his Psalm rewritten in their context.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Rise up to help us-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This is the appeal of David personally (<a href='B:230 35:2'>Psa 35:2</a>), but now appropriated to the exiles.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Redeem us for Your grace’ sake- After all the insistence that they are suffering unreasonably (see on :13,14), there does come an appeal to God's grace. We would perhaps rather see confession of sin and of Divine justice; but at least there is an awareness of grace.</p><h2></h2>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For the Chief Musician. Set to The Lilies-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This is the word for "trumpets". It was a song to accompany the trumpet symphony at a wedding.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>A contemplation by the sons of Korah-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"By" can as well be "for", so the Psalm may still be Davidic, but is dedicated to the memory of the sons of Korah. Korah had died in rebellion against God, but his children had been preserved (<a href='B:40 26:9-11'>Num 26:9-11</a>); they therefore became representative of all who had overcome bad background to worship Yahweh independently, regardless of the sins of their fathers. They were therefore inspirational to the righteous remnant amongst the exiles in Babylon. Or these "sons of Korah" may refer to a group of musicians who were to perform the Psalm, the Levitical singers mentioned in <a href='B:130 26:1-2'>1Ch 26:1-2</a>; <a href='B:140 20:19'>2Ch 20:19</a>. Or if we insist on reading "by", it could have been a Davidic Psalm edited and as it were released by a group called "the sons of Korah" during the captivity in Babylon.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>A wedding song-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I suggest all of Psalms 1-72 were written by David (<a href='B:230 72:20'>Psa 72:20</a>), so we can assume this was David's song for Solomon, as was Psalms 72.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>My heart overflows with a noble theme. I recite my verses for the king-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David expected Solomon to be the next king.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>My tongue is like the pen of a skilful writer-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The inspired writer of Psalms 45 says that his tongue is like the pen of a writer (<a href='B:230 45:1'>Psa 45:1</a>). The writer is God. God was using the inspired person’s words as His pen, with which to communicate to men. Ezra likewise saw himself as a “scribe of the law of the God of heaven” (<a href='B:150 7:21'>Ezr 7:21</a>). The God who is in Heaven wrote through a scribe here on earth. That’s the idea of inspiration.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>You are the most excellent of the sons of men. Grace has anointed your lips, therefore God has blessed you forever-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Whilst this Psalm is quoted about the Lord Jesus in Hebrews 1, we must remember that the initial context was David's prayer for Solomon at his wedding. He clearly assumes Solomon's excellence above all his brothers, perhaps referred to as "the sons of men", and automatic blessing from God as the one anointed by grace to the kingship. It was exactly these parental expectations and unrealistic assumptions which were to be Solomon's undoing in later life. "Excellent" is AV "fairer" and appears to be a reference to Solomon's beauty, glorified in <a href='B:260 5:10-16'>Son 5:10-16</a>.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Strap your sword on your thigh, mighty one, in your splendour and your majesty-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This appears to be David drunk with fatherly pride as it were, as he sees Solomon riding to the nuptials to claim his bride.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>In your majesty ride victoriously on behalf of truth, humility, and righteousness. Let your right hand display awesome deeds-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This speaks in the Hebrew text of 'meekness-righteousness', as if meekness is the very essence of righteousness; and it was this which Solomon was to fight for.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Your arrows are sharp. The nations fall under you, with arrows in the heart of the king’s enemies-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Solomon was envisaged as conquering the surrounding nations. David rejoices that Divine "arrows" were sent to destroy his enemies (<a href='B:230 7:13'>Psa 7:13</a>; <a href='B:230 18:14'>Psa 18:14</a>; <a href='B:230 45:5'>Psa 45:5</a>; <a href='B:230 64:7'>Psa 64:7</a>; <a href='B:230 144:6'>Psa 144:6</a>), in fulfilment of God's promise to do so to the sinful within Israel (<a href='B:50 32:23'>Deu 32:23</a>; <a href='B:50 32:42'>Deu 32:42</a>). But David was to later realize that those same arrows had been fired by God into him in judgment for his sin (<a href='B:230 38:2'>Psa 38:2</a>). This realization was perhaps to help David understand that his rejoicing in Divine arrows of judgment being fired at his enemies had not been mature; for he himself had to realize that he was worthy of the same.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Your throne, God, is forever and ever. A sceptre of equity is the sceptre of your kingdom-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>We must ever remember that this Psalm is primarily David addressing his son Solomon at his wedding. Solomon was not "God" so we can interpret this as being used in the sense of "mighty one", as in :3. The New Testament quotation of it about the Lord Jesus is not, therefore, declaring Him "God" in a Trinitarian sense; but rather emphasizing His highly exalted status. David was wrong to imagine that his son would have an eternal Messianic kingdom; although that may have been potentially possible, had Solomon been obedient. But his misplaced expectation is applied to the Lord Jesus, who will ultimately fulfil it. David imagined that Solomon's reign was to be characterized by "equity"; but in fact this didn't work out. For Solomon ended up abusing his people. And so whatever possibilities there were for him to be the Messianic ruler, they were precluded by his later unfaithfulness. And so the language is reapplied and rescheduled to the Lord Jesus.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>You have loved righteousness, and hated wickedness; therefore God, even your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your fellows-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This is applied to the Lord Jesus in <a href='B:650 1:9'>Heb 1:9</a>. The Lord Jesus had a wondrous mixture of "grace and truth" which has so eluded Christianity. His hating sin more than any other man was one reason for the height of his exaltation above all others by the Father. But <a href='B:650 1:9'>Heb 1:9</a> understands the "fellows" as referring not only to men but Angels; for it is used in the course of arguing that the Lord Jesus although once human, is not an Angel; He is greater than or "above" Angels. This is typical of Jewish midrash (interpretation). Words are quoted not perfectly in context, and then the words are given an interpretation appropriate to the point being made. &nbsp;The emphasis upon "God, even your God" is evidence enough that the Lord Jesus was not God; for God the Father is His God, as He Himself said (<a href='B:470 27:46'>Mat 27:46</a>; <a href='B:500 20:17'>Joh 20:17</a>):&nbsp; This is not the only passage where there is an intentional juxtaposition of language about the Lord Jesus; He is called "God" (but see on :6), but now we read of 'his God', God the Father, as <a href='B:650 1:9'>Heb 1:9</a> interprets it. Out of this dialectic comes the true interpretation; the Lord Jesus was totally human, He was not God in the Trinitarian sense, God the Father was His Father and God; but because He was morally perfect, He was exalted to a status that can only be described in the highest possible terms.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>It is also worth asking the question, in the context of Solomon: 'Who anointed him above his fellows to be king? Who judged him as such a spiritual person?'. The answer is surely his father David. And "God" / "mighty one" (note the word Yahweh isn't used here) could simply be a Hebraic way of referring to David.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>All your garments smell like myrrh, aloes, and cassia. Out of the ivory palaces the stringed instruments have made you glad-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'> Having addressed the groom, the Psalm moves to address the bride, as she walks out of an ivory palace to the sound of stringed instruments. Ahab had an ivory palace (<a href='B:110 22:39'>1Ki 22:39</a>; <a href='B:370 3:15'>Amo 3:15</a>), so it is not unthinkable that there was such a "palace" in Jerusalem at the time of Solomon's wedding. He himself made an ivory throne for himself. It would appear that this woman was a foreigner, perhaps the daughter of the queen of Sheba (:9) or an Egyptian woman. But Solomon,&nbsp; just&nbsp; like&nbsp; the foolish young man he later wrote about, had gone right ahead down the road to spiritual disaster he so often warned others about. He warns the young man of the dangers of the Gentile woman who perfumes her bed with myrrh (<a href='B:240 7:16-17'>Pro 7:16-17</a>)- and then falls for just such a woman (<a href='B:230 45:8'>Psa 45:8</a>).</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Kings’ daughters are among your honourable women-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Presumably these were not David's daughters, but the bridesmaids. It seems clear that this woman was a Gentile daughter of a king and queen; probably from Egypt.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>At your right hand the queen stands in gold of Ophir-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Perhaps she was the daughter of the queen of Sheba, and her mother was present at the wedding. Solomon's bride was in any case the daughter of a queen, and her sisters acted as her bridesmaids; they were king's daughters. The marriage of the "son of David" to a Gentile indeed fits the type well, regarding the marriage of the Lord Jesus. But in the immediate context, David and Solomon were surely wrong to go ahead with marrying outside of the covenant:&nbsp;</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Listen, daughter, consider, and turn your ear-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This may be David's desire for his new daughter in law to turn her ear to the God of Israel and convert. But this ought to have been done well before the wedding day. "Turn your ear" is a phrase used about responding to Yahweh's wisdom (<a href='B:230 49:4'>Psa 49:4</a>; <a href='B:240 2:2'>Pro 2:2</a> and so often in Proverbs).</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Forget your own people, and also your father’s house-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Separation from the world unto the things of God is brought out in the way <a href='B:230 45:10'>Psa 45:10</a>; <a href='B:230 45:16'>Psa 45:16</a> alludes to the Mosaic laws about a Gentile woman forgetting her father’s house. Indeed the Psalm appears to have relevance to Solomon’s marriage to a Gentile [and note the allusions to Joseph’s marriage to a Gentile]: “Forget also thine own people, and thy father’s house [this is the ‘separation from’ the world]</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'> instead of thy fathers shall be thy children, which thou mayest make princes in all the earth [land- of Israel]”. The emotional pain of separation from her father’s world would be offset by her bringing forth Godly children within the hope of Israel. The whole process of separating from and yet also separating unto seems to me to create a kind of synergy from the whole dialectic. It's by separating from the world that we go back into this world in service and witness and caring concern. And if we don't find ourselves 'separated unto' those things- have we actually separated from this world in the way God intends?</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>So the king will desire your beauty; honour him, for he is your lord-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David is saying that his son will be yet the more attracted to her beauty if she accepts the God of Israel (see on :10); but this of course should have all happened well before the wedding day.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The daughter of Tyre comes with a gift, the rich among the people entreat your favour-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>It seems David was friends with Hiram king of Tyre (<a href='B:110 5:1'>1Ki 5:1</a>), and the court of Tyre was represented at the wedding.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The princess inside is all glorious. Her clothing is interwoven with gold-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This can easily be understood in the type as the Lord's bride being internally "glorious", with the gold of faith interwoven in her clothing.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>She shall be led to the king in embroidered work. The virgins, her companions who follow her, shall be brought to you-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The language of embroidery, gold and the spices of :8 is that of the tabernacle and priestly garments. It's as if David wishes to present this Gentile girl as somehow connected with the external symbols of the true faith of Yahweh; even though :10 implies she was not in fact converted to Him at this point.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>With gladness and rejoicing they shall be led; they shall enter into the king’s palace-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The idea may be that these Gentile girls (:9) would come and live with the bride in Solomon's palace. David was wishing to see in all this a foretaste of the gathering of the Gentiles to Israel's God. But in reality :10 implies she was not in fact converted to Him at this point. And Solomon would be led astray by these women in the long term. The same ultimate hollowness is to be found throughout the Song of Solomon.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Your sons will take the place of your fathers; you shall make them princes in all the land-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>With Solomon as king, his bride's children would be princes in the land of Israel. So David imagined. And this would take the place, psychologically, of her sacrifice of her relationship with her "fathers"; see on :10.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I will make your name to be remembered in all generations. Therefore the peoples shall give you praise forever and ever- Again David comes over as somewhat arrogant and ahead of himself in thinking that this daughter in law would be made by him to have an eternal name in Israel, and also be the praise of the Gentiles. For :10 implies she was not in fact converted to Israel's God at this point. The mere external tokenism was to lead to this marriage going terribly wrong in spiritual terms, leading to the spiritual demise of Solomon.</p><h2></h2>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For the Chief Musician. By the sons of Korah-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"By" can as well be "for", so the Psalm may still be Davidic, but is dedicated to the memory of the sons of Korah. Korah had died in rebellion against God, but his children had been preserved (<a href='B:40 26:9-11'>Num 26:9-11</a>); they therefore became representative of all who had overcome bad background to worship Yahweh independently, regardless of the sins of their fathers. They were therefore inspirational to the righteous remnant amongst the exiles in Babylon. Or these "sons of Korah" may refer to a group of musicians who were to perform the Psalm, the Levitical singers mentioned in <a href='B:130 26:1-2'>1Ch 26:1-2</a>; <a href='B:140 20:19'>2Ch 20:19</a>:&nbsp;</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>According to Alamoth-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Virgins". This is a musical direction, perhaps implying it was to be sung on high notes, with voices&nbsp; like those of "virgins".</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>In the Hezekiah context, this could be seen as the answer to Isaiah's prayer in <a href='B:290 33:2'>Isa 33:2</a>: “May You be their arm every morning, our salvation also in the time of trouble”. The Psalm appears relevant to a time when Zion was surrounded by armies, and yet God destroyed them and saved His people. This would fit the deliverance from the Assyrians at Hezekiah's time; probably a Psalm written by David commemorating a great deliverance was edited and reapplied to this incident.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Therefore we won’t be afraid though the earth shakes, though the mountains are shaken into the heart of the seas-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Mountains" may be an intensive plural for the one great mountain, of Zion; and it looked likely to be cast into the seas of the Gentiles, surrounded as Zion was by Assyrian trooPsa. I have suggested on <a href='B:730 8:8'>Rev 8:8</a> that the mountain cast into the seas in the Apocalypse also refers to Zion. The "we" refers in the first instance to Isaiah, Hezekiah and the faithful remnant within Jerusalem.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>though its waters roar and are troubled, though the mountains tremble with their swelling. Selah-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The mountains, the great mount Zion (:2), did tremble with fear because of the roaring of the seas of nations around it. But later Isaiah was to glory in the fact that just as the waters roared at the Red Sea and God calmed them, so He came through for Judah at this time (<a href='B:290 51:15'>Isa 51:15</a>). But there was to be a time when the waters of Babylon would likewise roar, and overcome Judah (s:w. <a href='B:300 6:23'>Jer 6:23</a>), and the latter day Assyrian confederacy against Zion will do likewise (s:w. <a href='B:230 83:2'>Psa 83:2</a>).</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>There is a river, the streams of which make the city of God glad-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The roaring of the mighty waters of the surrounding Gentiles is contrasted with a tiny stream within Zion. Under siege, Jerusalem has no natural water supply; and so Hezekiah had built a conduit bringing a trickle of water into Zion from the Gihon (<a href='B:120 20:20'>2Ki 20:20</a>). And the city was "glad" of that. This tiny stream kept the people alive. And the Psalmist sees in this a symbol of God's abiding deliverance of His people.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The holy place of the tents of the Most High-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The tents of the Assyrians around Jerusalem are contrasted with the invisible tents of God's Angels camped within the besieged city. Things may appear hopeless in secular terms, but in spiritual terms God's saving power is ultimately far superior to whatever we may apparently be outnumbered by.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>God is in her midst, she shall not be moved-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This connects with David's statement that he personally "shall not be moved" in <a href='B:230 16:8'>Psa 16:8</a>: "I have set Yahweh always before me; because He is at my right hand, I shall not be moved". The context is of David's desire to take the hill of Zion from the Jebusites, and for it to become his by conquest (see on <a href='B:230 15:1'>Psa 15:1</a>; <a href='B:230 16:5-6'>Psa 16:5-6</a>). He was confident he could do this in God's strength, and by saying "I shall not be moved" he identifies himself with Zion which "shall not be moved" (<a href='B:230 46:5'>Psa 46:5</a>). And indeed God came through for David. Because he put Yahweh "always before me", he was given mount Zion and established his kingdom there. This verse is then quoted about the Lord Jesus- who likewise shall establish His Kingdom upon David's throne in Zion (<a href='B:490 1:34-35'>Luk 1:34-35</a>) because of His trust in Yahweh.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>God will help her at dawn-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>A reference to how the 185,000 Assyrian soldiers were slain overnight, and their corpses discovered by the Jews "early in the morning" (<a href='B:120 19:35'>2Ki 19:35</a>).</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The nations raged, the kingdoms were moved. He lifted His voice, and the earth melted-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Here we have made explicit that the raging waters of :2,3 represent the nations confederate with Assyria. God's lifted up voice presumably refers to the quiet prophetic words uttered by God through Isaiah, to the effect that He would deliver His people. Those quiet words were perceived by the faithful as God roaring so loud that the earth melted.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yahweh of Armies is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>God's "armies" are the Angels, and it was just one of them who went out and slew 185,000 of the surrounding soldiers. "The God of Jacob" is a phrase which elicits the reflection that Jacob was not spiritually strong, and his God saved him by grace; and that was indeed the case at the time of the salvation of Zion from the Assyrians.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David sees that Yahweh will be a "high tower" or place of refuge at the day of future judgment (<a href='B:230 9:8-9'>Psa 9:8-9</a>, quoted about this in <a href='B:510 17:31'>Act 17:31</a>). But David feels God has been like this to him in this life (<a href='B:100 22:3'>2Sa 22:3</a>; <a href='B:230 18:2'>Psa 18:2</a>; <a href='B:230 46:7'>Psa 46:7</a>; <a href='B:230 48:3'>Psa 48:3</a>; <a href='B:230 59:9'>Psa 59:9</a>; <a href='B:230 59:16-17'>Psa 59:16-17</a>; <a href='B:230 62:2'>Psa 62:2</a>; <a href='B:230 94:22'>Psa 94:22</a>; <a href='B:230 144:2'>Psa 144:2</a>), and He was like this by grace to the Jews of Isaiah's day. David therefore sees a seamless experience in his relationship with God in this life, and at the future day of judgment. God saves us right now and is a refuge for us in countless life situations; and this is the guarantee that He will be likewise at the last day.</p>


